There let the pealing organ blow
To the full-voiced choir below,
In service high, and anthem clear,
As may with sweetness, through mine ear,
Dissolve me into extasies,
And bring all heav'n before mine eyes."

At the period of which we speak, the want of music in the services of
the church seems to have been severely felt, though perhaps the simpler
forms of the new ritual were comparatively but little adapted for
musical display. Great exertions were made throughout the kingdom by the
deans and chapters to restore the efficiency of the choirs; and
Elizabeth, in the exercise of what then appeared an undoubted
prerogative of the crown, issued her warrant for the impressment of
singing men and boys for the castle of Windsor. The churches and
cathedrals still, indeed, retained their organs; "the choirs and places
where they sing" were still in being; all the _matériel_ was at hand;
but, with the exception of the production of John Marbeck, called "The
Book of Common Prayer Noted," which was printed in 1550, there was as
yet no music for the new services in the English language. Two years
after the accession of Elizabeth, and one year after the bill for the
uniformity of common prayer had passed the legislature, a choral work,
"very necessarie for the church of Christ to be frequented and used,"
was published, among the authors of which the name of Tallis appeared.
The musical necessities of the newly established church appear to have
stimulated or developed talents which, under other circumstances, might
perhaps have been less prominently brought forward: at all events, the
demand for this music would seem a principal reason why the early
English masters should have devoted themselves so exclusively to sacred
composition. Tallis and his pupil Byrd, both men of original genius,