Thomas Tallis (c. 1505-1585); ENG

Thomas Tallis (c. 1505–1585) was an English composer and organist whose long career spanned the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. He served at institutions including Dover Priory, Waltham Abbey, and Canterbury Cathedral before becoming a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, where he remained for the rest of his life. The profound religious changes of Tudor England required Tallis to compose for both Catholic and Protestant liturgies and in both Latin and English.

Tallis was a supreme master of Renaissance vocal polyphony, capable of writing with equal distinction in monumental and intimate forms. His best-known work, the forty-part motet Spem in alium, is one of the most extraordinary contrapuntal achievements of the sixteenth century. Other important works include If Ye Love Me, Lamentations of Jeremiah, Miserere nostri, and In manus tuas. With William Byrd he received a royal monopoly for printing polyphonic music in England in 1575.

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Read biography at allmusic.com.