Thomas Tallis

Thomas Tallis served four English monarchs, from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I, as a church musician, and survived every religious reversal of the English Reformation by adapting: elaborate Latin music when Catholic worship was in favor, plainer English settings when it was not. For much of his career he sang and played in the Chapel Royal, the monarch's private choir, and in 1575 Elizabeth granted him and his younger colleague William Byrd the exclusive right to print music in England.

His range runs from simple hymn tunes to Spem in alium, a work for forty separate voice parts arranged as eight choirs of five singers, in which the sound travels around the room from choir to choir.

Spem in alium is the summit, and worth seeking out in a good recording. Alongside it, try the 9 Psalm Tunes; one of their melodies later became the theme of a well-known orchestral piece by Vaughan Williams.