The Tallis Scholars returned to the lovely Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Midtown Manhattan on December 12 to bring in the Holiday Season with their lush and luscious early music. Josquin de Prez's amazing "Missa de Beata Virgine," so thrilling in this winter season, headlined the program.

Lovers of early music have long been familiar with the Tallis Scholars. The men and women of this group are experts in their craft, and the tightly woven beauty of their voices, as the sound ascends into the gothic splendor of St. Mary's, is truly something to behold visually and aurally. When they are positioned strategically below the main vaulted space, this award-winning early music group's slightest whisper may be heard.

Peter Phillips founded the Tallis Scholars in England in 1973 and has carved out a niche that is all his own. He has dedicated his life to the scholarship and interpretation of early music and programmed an excellent celebration of both the group and the season. The ensemble ranges from soft tones, bell-like and ascending with no vibrato whatsoever, the voices truly instruments that conflict sometimes like a slight altercation, other times like a more polite, but strong quarrel, yet always resolving to something that glorifies the subject at hand. The Tallis Scholars are a celebration of collaboration.

Kicking off with Josquin's "Missa de Beate Virgine" was a great way to set the tone for the entire evening. Josquin, known by a single name much like Prince and Madonna, was the pre-eminent composer of his day and recognized by many as the first genius composer. The range of dynamics and tonal variation are like tapestries, so perfect for the space and the season. The purity of tone of each of the singers is organ-like, in addition to bell-like, and if one closes one's eyes, one is whisked back in time, before the era of 200 channels with nothing on, to a time when music like this mass was actually used for religious purpose as well as entertaining performance.

Close-order a cappella singing à la Tallis requires no vibrato, but a great deal of warmth to the tone. This is team play as much as any other sport, and just as demanding. Sopranos Janet Coxwell and Amy Haworth, altos Patrick Craig and Caroline Trevor, tenors Christopher Watson, Simon Wall, George Pooley and William Balkwell, and basses Donald Greig and Robert Macdonald are all sensitive to the nuances required by the music, as well as to what director Phillips want to elicit from them.

The program's second part opened with the "Magnificat" by John Nesbett. Not much is known about Nesbett, save that he was somewhat contemporary to Josquin, active in the 1470s and 1480s, and died in 1488. The piece was well executed and interesting choices were made. Musical notation, at the time that Nesbett was working, was still in its infancy. Key signatures and musical notes did not have the same color in that time that they have today. As an example, the A note, which we consider to be of a very particular frequency, could vary by as much as one step to a third, which musicians will tell you considerably varies what we think of as the key and range today. The selection made for the "Magnificat" was certainly based on scholarship, but at times was not the best display of the sopranos' art. Overall it was pyrotechnic, where Josquin is more mannered.

Next was Thomas Tallis work "Tunes for Archbishop Parker's Psalter." Archbishop Parker created a version of the Psalms, all 150 of them, rendered into verse. Tallis created a series of melodies that could be used with various passages, based upon the emotion they convey. Nine passages were selected, with eight of the tunes explicitly for the eight groupings that Parker outlines that relate, it is said, to the eight musical modes. The ninth melody was designed for use with the verses that appear separate from the psalms. The performance was delightful.

Tallis and William Byrd had a very close relationship personally and professionally during their lives. Byrd was young enough to be Tallis' son and Tallis was godfather to Byrd's son Thomas. When Tallis passed, Byrd wrote a paean to his mentor, "Ye sacred muses," that, while short, is so beautiful, polyphonically rich and well written that the depth of Byrd's devotion is readily seen.

"Tribulationes civitatum" is very different from the piece that preceded it, in that it is more representative of what Byrd was writing when the mantle passed from mentor Tallis. Both this piece and the "Vigilate" that followed are from Byrd's "Cantiones Sacrae" from 1589, where his work came more fully into his own, demonstrating that the man had taken the mantle and become most fully the master. "Tribulationes civitatum" is Catholic Byrd's acknowledgement of the schism that created Protestantism and the Church of England. Byrd exploited the lock he had on music printing, an exclusive granted by Queen Elizabeth, to continue to promote the sense of universality that is at the root of the word "catholic."

The "Vigilate" continues the political orientation of Byrd's music, where he sets Mark's gospel verse regarding Jesus' admonishment to be aware of and prepare for the end of days when he'd return, relating that to the subjugation of Catholicism and the rise of the Protestant faith in his time, and suggesting that the end of days was, in fact, foretold by this verse. For the modern troubadours, who think they invented political statements in music, this should be a reckoning as well-those who don't learn from history find themselves repeating it.

Josquin's "Missa de Beate Virgine" has not yet been recorded, but is slated to be in January 2010. Mark the date on your calendar, as this recording will be a stellar example of early music for any collection. A gift certificate for its, well, "advent" in someone's stocking or from Chanu-Claus would be in order.