(Interestingly, it's not The Tallis Scholars' recording that James name checks - she recommends The Sixteen's version instead.) Apparently, Mr. E L James has issued her own 'soundtrack' lists for full, multisensorial Fifty Shades enjoyment - with Bach, Delibes, Villa-Lobos, Chopin, Verdi, Vaughan Williams, Canteloube and Mozart included. 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).'īut the strange pop-culture moment The Tallis Scholars are now enjoying isn't where the intersection of classical music and Fifty Shades ends. 'I haven't read Fifty Shades of Grey,' Phillips said, '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. This unexpected rebounding has been enough of a high/low cultural collision that Peter Phillips, the very proper and rather starchy founder and director of The Tallis Scholars, has actually issued a statement about it. I've just learned through fans' postings online - I must admit I haven't read the book - that Spem is what the seductive Christian Grey is listening to on his first night with the book's heroine.*

Could Thomas Tallis be far behind?Ĭonsider this: Thomas Tallis' wondrous 40-part motet Spem in alium, written around 1570 and recorded by The Tallis Scholars more than 25 years ago, has bounded up the classical charts, thanks to its mention in the first installment of Fifty Shades. 3 on the New York Times best-sellers list. And here we are - even before the movie's opening night, the first Fifty Shades book is back at No. Since the time this article was first published, an official compilation was released on EMI Classics that beat out every other title on the Billboard classical chart for months. Though classical music is apparently nowhere to be heard in the film's soundtrack, it still figures as a huge presence in E L James' trilogy, which, as of a year ago, had sold more than 100 million copies in more than 50 languages.Īmong the more obvious commercial tie-in products, some classical albums have enjoyed significant Fifty Shades afterglow, as I wrote three years ago (read the original, from July 11, 2012, below). The reviews rolling in have been dreadful, but it seems that audiences will probably pour into theaters this Valentine's Day weekend to see Fifty Shades of Grey on the big screen. The book behind the unlikely re-emergence of Thomas Tallis' resplendent 40-voice motet Spem in alium.

Fifty shades of grey movie songs