Sung Eucharist · 6 September 2026

Sung Eucharist

Music by Thomas Tallis, sung by the choir at our principal Sunday service.

Music, Confirmed and Published

The music for this service was chosen by the Director of Music and confirmed by the Rector.

At Sung Eucharist, the choir leads the congregation’s praise and adorns the celebration of Holy Communion with an anthem drawn from the English choral tradition. This week the choir sings Thomas Tallis’s “If ye love me,” one of the great miniatures of Reformation church music.

Anthem

If ye love me - Thomas Tallis

Thomas Tallis (c.1505–1585) served as organist and composer to the Chapel Royal under four Tudor monarchs, writing music for both the old Latin rite and the new English liturgy as the Reformation reshaped the Church. “If ye love me” sets words from St John’s Gospel in simple, syllabic four-part harmony, first published in John Day’s Certaine Notes in the 1560s. Its restraint and clarity make it a model of early English church music - direct, devotional, and enduringly popular in parish and cathedral choirs alike.

If ye love me, keep my commandments.

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