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Refsdal Canon

Those who were at the Gravitational Lensing conference held in June 1998 in the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters' lovely building may recall being inflicted with a time-delayed song during the conference dinner by the members of one of the tables.

It was in fact by Thomas Tallis

Refsdal canon

though usually sung with different words, such as:

Be present at our table Lord,
Be here and everywhere adored.
These morsels bless and grant that we
May feast in paradise with thee.

The canon actually works in eight parts. (One of these days I must have a dinner party with enough voices to sing it in full.) But it sounds good even with a mere four or two voices.

Writing eight part canons was nothing to Tallis. His most extravagant piece, the motet Spem in alium is actually for eight five part choirs (i.e., forty voices in all).