Though the reformers of the English church had their hands full with translating the complete Catholic liturgy and ritual into the vernacular, periodically they gave some attention to the specific style of music that would most appropriately serve the new reformed church. Thomas Cranmer, for instance, opined that a syllabic setting of religious texts would be more conducive to meditation upon them than other styles: "The song that should be made thereunto would not be full of notes, but, as near as may be, for every syllable a note." And Thomas Tallis, one of the first English composers to provide music for the reformed service, took Cranmer's injunction to heart. Some of the earliest music he offered the Chapel Royal must have been midnight adaptations of his Latin motets to English texts. Other new compositions, however, helped forge a new style of the English "anthem." These pieces, which also enjoyed a vogue early in Elizabeth's reign, tend toward two-part structures with the second repeating, and toward strictly homophonic textures, alternating with brief imitative passages. At the same time, they leave room in their simplicity for affective harmonic and melodic motion. Tallis' "O Lord, give Thy Holy Spirit" offers a convenient example.

Whether Edwardian or Elizabethan, Tallis' "O Lord, give Thy Holy Spirit" presents a simple, yet expressive statement of its prayerful text. The opening incise of text occurs in a unified homophonic style, as all the choir asks for the gift of the Holy Spirit. A sudden melodic cross-relation shifts the song's color for the added prayer that He "lighten our understanding" and a contrasting texture of imitation underscores the sense of "all the days of our life," repeating until a harmonically brighter cadence. The remaining music, praying for knowledge of the true God and the Christ whom he sent, proceeds in largely syllabic manner, enlivened by repetition, hints of pervasive imitation, and the characteristic repeat of the entire section.

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