Thomas Tallis - Spem in Alium [Score]

Performed by the The Tallis Scholars *Note that this performance score is a whole step higher than the original* Spem in alium (Latin for “Hope in any other“) is a 40-part Renaissance motet by Thomas Tallis, composed in c. 1570 for eight choirs of five voices each. It is considered by some critics to be the greatest piece of English early music. H. B. Collins described it in 1929 as Tallis’s “crowning achievement“, along with his Lamentations. Text: Spem in alium nunquam habui Praeter in te, Deus Israel Qui irasceris et propitius eris et omnia peccata hominum in tribulatione dimittis Domine Deus Creator caeli et terrae respice humilitatem nostram. (I have never put my hope in any other but in You, O God of Israel who can show both anger and graciousness, and who absolves all the sins of suffering man Lord God, Creator of Heaven and Earth be mindful of our lowliness.)