ABSTRACT
The sum of Thomas Tallis's extant works written for instruments is very small. Nearly all are keyboard pieces based on plainsong, and are assumed to have been written for performance on the organ during Sarum services, either in the reign of King Henry VIII or in the reign of Queen Mary. Tallis's setting of the hymn Iam lucis orto sidere is entered separately from the rest of his hymn settings, but is one of a group of pieces made up largely of songs presented in keyboard score. The first of Tallis's pieces entered by Thomas Mulliner, separately from the others, is a short and simple setting of the Christmas antiphon Natus est nobis, akin to some of the organ music of John Redford's generation. The title of Tallis's song associates it on one hand with the practice of learning music by singing solmization syllables.
