The one word used perhaps most often to describe the musical personality of Thomas Tallis is "flexibility." Tallis worked under four successive—and quite different—monarchs of England, and wrote church music for four disparate periods in English Reformation and counter-Reformation history. Despite the likelihood that his own proclivities leaned toward the older Roman Catholic faith, Tallis composed well, and even prolifically, in each successive musical and liturgical mode. Thus much of his music may be placed in loose chronological categories, depending on the prevailing winds of the time. Late in the long reign of King Henry VIII, for instance, after Henry's proclamation of Anglican ecclesiastical independence but before the full institution of English vernacular worship, one particular style of liturgical piece clung to its fashion, the "solo type" choral Responsory; as we might expect, Tallis left several examples, including the short but beautiful Respond Audivi vocem.

A complete plainchant composition in Responsory form makes up a series of choral and solo sections, following an overall form of ABCB. Following the prevailing styles of Henrican music, Tallis sets the plainchant Audivi vocem for choir yet leaves much of the chant alone. The piece, a Respond for the Office of Matins on the holy feast of All Saints' Day, begins with an expansive and imitative choral section all on the first word of text, "I heard..." However, this rhetorical opening quickly coalesces into plainchant for the rest of the opening text and the "respond" within the form: the speaker hears a voice telling all to keep oil in the lamps until the Bridegroom appears (reference to Christ's parable of the "wise and foolish virgins" in the Gospels). Tallis then sets the "verse" section (C) for full choir again: "In the middle of the night a cry was made: Behold, the Bridgroom comes!" The piece concludes with a reiteration of the solemn "B" section chant, warning all who hear to keep oil in the lamps. The net effect is complete and sober liturgical propriety, but an exciting musical event nonetheless.

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