Dum transisset Sabbatum (I), one of Taverner's most celebrated works, inaugurated a new practice in the setting of respond texts by presenting as florid polyphony the verses ordinarily chanted by the choir and keeping the soloist's verses in unadorned plainchant. In the polyphonic sections, the plainchant treads steadily in even note values surrounded by the composer's characteristic arching and soaring melodic phrases. The stylistic contrast between chant and polyphony could not be more dramatic and, as befits this Easter morning text, results in a work of unmatched choral splendor.