If Ye Love Me is a four-part motet or anthem by the English composer Thomas Tallis, a setting of a passage from the Gospel of John
First published in 1565 during the reign of Elizabeth I, it is an example of Tudor music and is part of the repertoire of Anglican church music. An early English-language motet, it is frequently performed today, and has been sung at special occasions including a papal visit and a royal wedding. The text is taken from William Tyndale's translation of the Bible which was in common use in the Church of England during the English Reformation. It uses verses from the Gospel of John, words spoken by Jesus to his disciples foretelling his own death and promising that God the Father will send to them the Holy Spirit. The anthem was chosen to be sung when Pope Benedict XVI attended Evensong at Westminster Abbey during his 2010 visit to the United Kingdom and also at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle in 2018.
Thomas Tallis (1505 – 1585) was an English composer of High Renaissance music. His compositions are primarily vocal, and he occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music. Tallis is considered one of England's greatest composers, and is honoured for his original voice in English musicianship. As no records about the birth, family or childhood of Thomas Tallis exist, almost nothing is known about his early life or origins. Historians have calculated that he was born in the early part of the 16th century, towards the end of the reign of Henry VII of England. Tallis served at court as a composer and performer for Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. He avoided the religious controversies that raged around him throughout his service to successive monarchs, though he remained, in the words of the historian Peter Ackroyd, an "unreformed Roman Catholic". Tallis was capable of switching the style of his compositions to suit each monarch's different demands. He stood out among other important composers of the time. Tallis taught the composer William Byrd. Toward the end of his life, Tallis resisted the musical development seen in his younger contemporaries who embraced compositional complexity. Tallis was content to draw his texts from the Liturgy and wrote for the worship services in the Chapel Royal. He composed during the conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism and his music often displays characteristics of the turmoil.
