50 Shades of Grey leads The Tallis Scholars’ recording of Spem in alium to climb the charts
The Tallis Scholars’ recording of Tallis’ magnificent 40-part motet Spem in alium is this week at number 7 in the official UK Classical Singles Chart.
Tallis’s Spem in alium is featured in the controversial literary sensation 50 Shades of Grey by E L James. So many readers have been buying The Tallis Scholars’ recording as a single track download from iTunes that it has risen steadily in the official UK Classical Singles Chart, from number 20, to number 13, to number 8 and this week to number 7.
Peter Phillips, the founder and director of The Tallis Scholars, said:
“I haven’t read 50 Shades of Grey but I am most grateful to the author for introducing so many new listeners to the musical sensation that is Thomas Tallis’s Spem in alium. Written during the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth it features 40 individual voices singing in Latin that combine to a thrilling climax for the words “respice humilitatem nostram” (be mindful of our humiliation).”
