If there is one English composer who can be regarded as Byrd’s equal it is his tutor, Thomas Tallis. He responded to the demands of his medium, whether Latin output for the Recusants or English for the Protestants, with remarkable flexibility and compositional mastery. So highly regarded were Tallis’ Latin compositions that alternative English texts were found for several of his Latin motets, thus allowing the pieces to be performed in the context of an Anglican church service; these pieces with multi-lingual texts became known as the contrafacta.
