Thomas Tallis was an English composer of High Renaissance church music, born around 1505 and died 23 November 1585. His earliest documented post was as organist at Dover Priory in 1532, after which he worked at Canterbury before becoming a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, a position he held for the remainder of his life, serving under Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. Born a Catholic, Thomas Tallis navigated the upheavals of the English Reformation without persecution, composing Latin polyphony for the old rite alongside pioneering English-language settings for the new Anglican liturgy. He is remembered as the father of English cathedral music.

Tallis stands as the foundational figure of English church music, his career spanning and shaping the transition from Latin Catholic polyphony to English Protestant choral tradition. His forty-voice motet Spem in alium remains one of the most technically astonishing works of the Renaissance, and his simple, chordal English anthems established a template still used in Anglican worship today.

Sources:

• https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Thomas_Tallis