Padre--

You're certainly right about Byrd and Tallis--some of choral singers consider them the absolute best composers ever in vocal music. And I have to say, having sung a fair amount of their music, that it is in fact wonderfully unearthly--probably the most incredible music to sing a cappella. Interesting that they both were Catholic--in Elizabeth's England. I've read, for instance, that in Tallis' Lamentations, his exhortation to return to Jerusalem was meant as code to return to Catholicism.