Spem in alium nunquam habui

Spem in alium nunquam habui, motet (short musical setting of a sacred text) by English composer Thomas Tallis, noted for its complex use of counterpoint in a composition for 40 voices. It is a 10-minute panorama of shifting tone colours and a tour de force of Renaissance polyphony that is unsurpassed in the English repertoire. It probably dates from the late 1560s to the early 1570s.

Tallis served under the Tudor monarchs from Henry VIII to Elizabeth I until his death in 1585. During Henry’s reign, Tallis was among the first composers to write for the new Church of England, yet he also composed for—and earned accolades from—the Roman Catholic Mary I. He may have produced Spem in alium nunquam habui, which is considered his single greatest achievement, for the Protestant Elizabeth, using a text that presented God as the only hope of humankind.

The text of the poem in Latin—adapted from a prayer response found in the Book of Judith—and in English follows:

Spem in alium nunquam habui
Praeter in te, Deus Israel,
Qui irasceris, et propitius eris,
Et omnia peccata hominum
In tribulatione dimittis.
Domine Deus, creator caeli et terrae,
Respice humilitatem nostram.


I have never placed my hope
In any other than you, God of Israel,
Who can show both anger and graciousness
And absolve all the sins
of suffering man.
Lord God, creator of Heaven and Earth
Be mindful of our humiliation.

According to some sources, the piece was presented at court in 1573, on the occasion of Elizabeth’s 40th birthday. To create Spem in alium nunquam habui, the composer organized his choristers into eight separate choirs, each containing five voice parts. Thus, Tallis’s score has 40 distinct vocal parts that were designed to fit together harmonically and must be kept in aural balance.