One of those rare masterpieces, this piece, written possibly in the 1570's by Thomas Tallis, is for 8 choirs of 5 voices each. Each voice is given a unique part. The score is massive, (I got it out of the library), probably 2 feet tall and 1.5 feet wide.

The idea for a performance was to spread out the 8 choirs and have antiphonal events going on. (Indeed, the opening line, "Spem in Alium nunquam habui" ... moves from the 1st and second choirs around to the seventh and eighth, if you were listening to a live performance the source of the music would literally circle around you.)

I love the text of the first statement. "Spem in alium nunquam habui praeter in te" "I have never put my hope in any other except in you."



http://www.amazon.com/Tallis-T-alium-Missa-intemerata/dp/B000QQSZ78/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1309287763&sr=8-4

That recording is very good, I think they did it in a cathedral like space, (unlike this youtube recording, which seems to have been recorded in a more dead space). The sound when all forty voices sing in the Naxos recording is something else, it swells like a balloon being flooded with water. However it's extremely hard to make out any individual words in the Naxos recording.