Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548 – 1611) was the most
famous composer in 16th-century Spain, and was one of
the most important composers of the
Counter-Reformation, along with Giovanni Pierluigi da
Palestrina and Orlando di Lasso. Victoria was not only
a composer, but also an accomplished organist and
singer as well as a Catholic priest. However, he
preferred the life of a composer to that of a
performer.
Victoria was born in Sanchidrián in the province of
Ávila, Castile around 1548 an...(+)
Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548 – 1611) was the most
famous composer in 16th-century Spain, and was one of
the most important composers of the
Counter-Reformation, along with Giovanni Pierluigi da
Palestrina and Orlando di Lasso. Victoria was not only
a composer, but also an accomplished organist and
singer as well as a Catholic priest. However, he
preferred the life of a composer to that of a
performer.
Victoria was born in Sanchidrián in the province of
Ávila, Castile around 1548 and died in 1611.
Victoria's family can be traced back for generations.
Not only are the names of the members in his immediate
family known, but even the occupation of his
grandfather. Victoria was the seventh of nine children
born to Francisco Luis de Victoria and Francisca
Suárez de la Concha. His mother was of converso
descent. After his father's death in 1557, his uncle,
Juan Luis, became his guardian. He was a choirboy in
Ávila Cathedral. Cathedral records state that his
uncle, Juan Luis, presented Victoria's Liber Primus to
the Church while reminding them that Victoria had been
brought up in the Ávila Cathedral. Because he was such
an accomplished organist, many believe that he began
studying the keyboard at an early age from a teacher in
Ávila. Victoria most likely began studying "the
classics" at St. Giles's, a boys' school in Ávila.
This school was praised by St.Teresa of Avila and other
highly regarded people of music.
He was a master at overlapping and dividing choirs with
multiple parts with a gradual decreasing of rhythmic
distance throughout. Not only does Victoria incorporate
intricate parts for the voices, but the organ is almost
treated like a soloist in many of his choral pieces.
Victoria did not begin the development of psalm
settings or antiphons for two choirs, but he continued
and increased the popularity of such repertoire.
Victoria reissued works that had been published
previously, and included new revisions in each new
issue.
The nine-voice Missa Pro victoria (1600) is the only
one of Tomás Luis de Victoria's Mass compositions
which parodies a secular work. In this case, the model
is a chanson of Clement Jennequin, La Battaille de
Marignan (also known as "La guerre"), which celebrates
a French victory in 1515. The model chanson itself is
an odd and somewhat distracting piece, one of the
composer's program chansons (such as Les cries de
Paris), full of onomatopoeia -- the singers actually
mimic the sounds of cannon, sword thrusts, and cries of
pain. Victoria brings these unusual declamatory
elements wholesale into this multiple-choir Mass; the
resulting stylistic idiosyncrasies, along with the
unusual model choice, have given this Mass a certain
"black sheep" status within Victoria's works. Not
suitable for daily worship, Victoria's Mass seems to
have been composed for a special occasion, probably for
Prince Philip III, to whom Victoria's last book of
Masses was itself dedicated.
All five of the main Mass movements begin with
references to the model's opening; Kyrie I and Agnus
Dei quote the entire polyphonic complex of Jannequin's
chanson. Interior motives appear in profusion: the "Et
resurrexit" of the Mass borrows from the chanson music
associated with words of encouragement in the Battle,
"Et iterum" adopts one of the many depictions of
falling blows, and "Pleni sunt" quotes a busy section
evoking the action of fifes and drums. The Mass
achieves further structural cohesion through the reuse
of several whole sections of music. The entire cycle is
framed by repetition of the block opening of Kyrie I in
the Agnus Dei; other blocks reused include the "Qui
tollis" and the closing to Kyrie II, which in fact
closes the Agnus Die at "dona nobis pacem." Musically,
then, the Missa Pro victoria presents an aural front
which, though atypical (at times it sounds
proto-Baroque!), is quite unified.
In general, the composer's treatment of his model
follows a symbolic path connecting the Guerre of the
chanson to the ongoing spiritual warfare, and eventual
victory, which is celebrated in the Mass. As a strong
example of this, one scholar notes that the material
borrowed for Kyrie I and Agnus Dei relates to a section
of the chanson which mentions the actual "victoire du
noble roy," introducing the idea of victory at the
outset and the consummation of the Mass. This setting
demonstrates the same passionate Christianity found in
Victoria's more familiar works, albeit in a context of
innovation.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom%C3%A1s_Luis_de_Victo
ria ).
Although originally created for nine (9) voices
(SSSAATTBB) & Organ, I created this Interpretation of
the "Missa Pro Victoria" (Mass on Victoria) for Winds
(Flute, Oboe, English Horn, French Horn & Bassoon) &
Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
