An Exceptional Repertoire: Forty‑Voice Polyphony in the European Renaissance

The program brings together two works that represent the apex of sixteenth‑century polychoral writing: Alessandro Striggio’s Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno and Thomas Tallis’s Spem in alium. Both are constructed for eight independent choirs, each consisting of five voices, for a total of forty real parts. This is an exceedingly rare compositional typology, requiring extraordinary control over sonic architecture, spatial disposition, and timbral balance.

These works did not arise as mere exercises in virtuosity, but as responses to specific political and cultural contexts: Medicean Florence in the case of Striggio, and the Elizabethan court for Tallis. Juxtaposing the two compositions allows us to observe how two distinct musical traditions—Italian and English—approached the challenge of polychoral monumentality in markedly different ways.

Alessandro Striggio – Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno for 40 voices

Composed probably around 1565–1566, Striggio’s Mass is one of the most ambitious polychoral experiments of the Renaissance. Its thematic material derives from his own secular composition Ecco sì beato giorno, a forty‑voice madrigal now lost but known through contemporary references. The Mass was presented in various diplomatic contexts across Europe, including Munich and Paris, as a testament to Medicean cultural prestige.

From a technical standpoint, Striggio constructs a sonic fabric based on alternating choral blocks, often organized in pairs or symmetrical groupings. The contrapuntal writing within individual parts is relatively simple, yet the overall effect is that of a vast modular architecture, whose density increases progressively until the celebrated Agnus Dei, which expands to sixty voices (with five additional reinforcing choirs). The writing privileges harmonic clarity and the perceptibility of large‑scale sonorities rather than intricate imitation.

Thomas Tallis – Spem in alium for 40 voices

Spem in alium, composed probably between 1570 and 1573, represents the English response to the continental polychoral tradition. Sources suggest that Tallis encountered Striggio’s Mass during the latter’s visit to England in 1567, and that Spem in alium was conceived as a work capable of matching—and perhaps surpassing—its ambition.

Unlike Striggio, Tallis adopts a more contrapuntal and articulated style. The choirs often enter in succession, creating “waves” of sound that traverse the entire spatial field. The central section, in which all forty voices sing simultaneously, is crafted with meticulous attention to harmonic verticality, avoiding the opacity that such a massive ensemble might produce. The choice of text—a responsory from the Office of the Hours—imparts a meditative character to the work despite its monumental scale.

Two Traditions in Dialogue

Although they share the same vocal dimensions, the two works embody distinct conceptions of polychorality:

Striggio works with large sonic masses, favoring a more homophonic approach and a logic of progressive accumulation.

Tallis privileges contrapuntal circulation, employing the choirs with greater flexibility and cultivating a wider variety of textures.

Hearing the two works consecutively reveals that polychorality was far from a uniform phenomenon; rather, it constituted a field of experimentation that each national tradition shaped according to its own aesthetic and liturgical priorities.