In the early 16th century church music was often very polyphonic. Voices imitated one another and sang different things at the same time. Tallis wrote church music which was much simpler. In a lot of his music the choir sing homophonic music instead of using the older polyphony. For a short time, during the reign of the Catholic Mary Tudor, polyphonic music was in fashion again. This was the time when Tallis wrote an antiphon “Gaude gloriosa Dei mater” and a mass musical setting|mass “Puer natus est nobis”. These two works are once more very complicated polyphonic works. After that his works become simpler once more, but he was always keen to try out new ideas from the continent of Europe. He wrote some very fine anthems. Many of his works are settings of Latin words, but he also made settings of English texts.