The Tallis Scholars: Tallis – Spem in alium
Album
Composed for forty independent vocal parts divided into eight five-voice choirs, Thomas Tallis's Renaissance motet is the ultimate architectural blueprint in choral sound. Peter Phillips positions The Tallis Scholars to reveal the piece's sweeping geometry, where vocal lines circle like arches in an Elizabethan rotunda before converging in colossal forty-voice climaxes. Film score fans will recognize the sheer cinematic majesty of the choral waves, which feel closer to surround-sound acoustic sculpture than conventional church singing.