Tallis Theme

Martin Edward Fallas Shaw OBE FRCM (9 March 1875 – 24 October 1958) was an English composer, conductor and (in his early life) theatre producer. His over 300 published works include songs, hymns, carols, oratorios, several instrumental works, a congregational mass setting (the Anglican Folk Mass) and four operas including a ballad opera.

He was born in London, the son of the James Shaw, composer of church music and organist of Hampstead Parish Church. He studied under Stanford at the Royal College of Music, together with a generation of composers that included Holst, Vaughan Williams and John Ireland. He began his career as an organist, serving at Emmanuel Church, West Hampstead, from 1895 to 1903. He subsequently took posts as Organist and Director of Music, first at St Mary's, Primrose Hill, and later at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London. He was also Master of Music at the Guildhouse, London. Working with Percy Dearmer, Martin was music editor of The English Carol Book (1913, 1919) and, with Ralph Vaughan Williams, of Songs of Praise (1925, 1931) and The Oxford Book of Carols (1928).

In 1932 Shaw received the Lambeth degree of Doctor of Music. He was appointed an OBE in 1955 and was made a FRCM in 1958.

Geoffrey Turton Shaw (14 November 1879 – 14 April 1943) was an English composer and musician specializing in Anglican church music. After Cambridge, where he was an organ scholar, he became a schoolmaster, then a schools inspector, while producing a stream of compositions, arrangements, and published collections of music. He was awarded the Lambeth degree of Doctor of Music.

Based upon the famous "Third Mode Melody" by Thomas Tallis (1515-1585), here arranged by Geoffrey and Martin Shaw. It is the same melody used by Vaughan Williams in his "Fantasia on a Theme of Tallis."

It shows the soft 8' stops of the Récit and the Tuba mirabilis of the Positif, surrounded by "Full Swell", etc.

The score is attached below, as well as a photo of Geoffrey and Martin Shaw.