Which Tudor composer wrote the 40-part motet 'Spem in alium'?

Thomas Tallis wrote the 40-part motet “Spem in alium.” Composed during the English Renaissance, it is one of the most ambitious works in the early choral repertory.

The motet is written for eight five-voice choirs, creating a total of 40 independent vocal parts. Its Latin text comes from a responsory associated with the Sarum Rite and begins by expressing trust in God. Tallis uses antiphonal exchanges, imitation, and massed vocal climaxes to make sound appear to travel around the performing space.

The exact date and circumstances of its composition remain debated, although it is generally placed around 1570. A famous story connects the work with a challenge to create something on an unprecedented scale, but historians treat parts of that anecdote cautiously. The Italian composer Alessandro Striggio’s visit to England may also have influenced the work’s conception.

The title is sometimes translated as “Hope in any other,” while the full opening text is often rendered as “I have never put my hope in any other but in Thee, O God of Israel.” Thomas Morley, John Taverner, and William Byrd were important English composers, but none wrote this motet.