The Serenissima repubblica of Venice at the dawn of the seventeenth century was among the richest and most influential states of Europe. Her money (and her pride) led to splendid excesses and made her an extremely popular tourist site. Even Venice's religious life paraded her wealth: the Cathedral boasted of a golden altarpiece and troops of singers and musicians, while civic confraternities such as the Scuola Grande di San Rocco could commission artwork from Gentile Bellini and Jacopo Tintoretto. Giovanni Gabrieli served as organist for both the Cathedral of San Marco and the San Rocco confraternity; his music both partook of Venice's splendor and helped project that splendor into the coming century. One of his most forward-looking works, the 14-voiced concertato motet In ecclesiis is also now his most famous. Gabrieli's In ecclesiis was not published until after his death (in the 1615 print Sacrae Symphoniae II), but undoubtedly served some great Venetian festival; one prominent interpreter of Gabrieli's music has suggested its ties to confraternal ceremonies celebrating San Rocco, the plague-healer.

Though often cited as a central example of Gabrieli's polychoral style, several features of In ecclesiis mark it as decidedly unusual. It is one of very few of his pieces to specify the instrumentation supporting its two choirs (three cornetti, a viola, and two trombones), in addition to its rare inclusion of a basso continuo (keyboard) part. The delayed arrival of the instrumental sinfonia and the rare use of solo vocal monody suggest a compositional date late in Gabrieli's career. The text to In ecclesiis collates a series of five Biblical allusions punctuated by five "alleluia" refrains. Throughout the work, Gabrieli crafts a series of shifting textures among the various performing forces; the net effect is a splendid and gradual buildup of textural momentum. He sets the first two verses for solo soprano and tenor, respectively, with full choral entries on the refrain. Only after this does the instrumental group enter with its sinfonia; the third verse adds two solo voices to them in eight-voiced imitative counterpoint. The fourth verse again presents a duet with organ, followed by the usual refrain, and an extraordinary entry: all 14 voices begin the final verse with chromatic harmonies on the cry "Deus!" The full choral and instrumental forces then continue their concerting through to the resplendent end of the final refrain.

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