of the parody technique, but it has also been suggested that parts of the mass are contrafacta – music originally written with different words. Like most settings of the Ordinary of the Mass, the work is in five major divisions: Kyrie Gloria Credo Sanctus – Benedictus Agnus Dei Striggio saves the full complement of 40 and 60 voices for climactic sections. The opening "Kyrie Eleison" begins with only one choir of eight voices; the "Christe Eleison" uses two choirs, totalling 16 voices; and the return of the "Kyrie" brings in yet another choir, totalling 24. The full 40 voices sing together for the first time in the "Gloria", at the words Glorificamus te (we glorify Thee), presenting the work's first climax. Textural contrasts abound. The "Credo", typically the longest section of any mass setting, uses 40 voices in many places, but intersperses many passages for smaller units. Sections of the mass which normally have a fuller, more exuberant musical setting, such as the "Et Resurrexit" (and He rose again) have all 40 voices, while those which more sedate or sorrowful, for example the "Crucifixus", have the smallest groupings (in this case, only eight voices of one choir sing). The closing "Agnus Dei", with 60 voices in five groups of 12, has more independent parts than any other polyphonic composition of the Renaissance. It begins with all sixty voices entering, one after another, in imitation; once they have all entered, they all sing until the end of the piece, forming a climax to the entire work. Influence The enormous work impressed many of its listeners, beginning in Munich, where Orlande de Lassus was in attendance; the event was similar to one a year later, described by Massimo Troiano, in which another Striggio piece for 40 voices was heard. After Munich, the piece was performed in Paris, at the house of Luigi Ludovico Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers, and then it was performed in England, where it was heard by English composer Thomas Tallis. Only Tallis, however, seems to have been inspired to match or out-do it, with his 40-voice Spem in alium. In this motet, the singers were probably arranged in a full circle around the listeners. The imitation pattern that begins Spem in alium is the same as that which begins this closing Agnus Dei in the Striggio mass, which has been seen as evidence that it was indeed this piece