ABSTRACT
The composition of music with Latin religious texts continued in England after the accession of Queen Elizabeth I. Its principal exponents were the leading composers of her private chapel. The language of the Elizabethan Chapel Royal was English, and although the demand for new English-texted music appears not to have been great, Thomas Tallis continued to provide some pieces late into his active career. The Cantiones collection provides a conspectus of a particular part of Tallis's work over two decades, and of Byrd's work of the same kind over a much shorter period. It was William Byrd who was largely responsible for the adoption in England of popular tunes, grounds, and songs as the basis of extended and carefully crafted sets of variations for keyboard instruments. It is far more likely that, together, the two pieces form one of Tallis's works in which Latin texts are set in ways unsuited to the Catholic rite.
