In jejunio et fletu was published in the Cantiones, quae ab argumento sacrae of 1575, the first printed collection of sacred polyphony in England and the joint effort of Tallis and his pupil, William Byrd. The plangent sonorities and dramatic harmonic shifts of this darkl-scored composition, one of the composer's unquestioned masterpieces, lends a solemn and plaintive urgency to this penitential text.