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 techniques of the parody Mass were over one hundred
years old by the time they were taught to the young
Tomas Luis de Victoria. From the work of Josquin's
generation, through the early sixteenth century,
composers used motets (and secular music as well) to
unify their settings of the five movements of the Mass
Ordinary. Major sections of the Mass should begin by
quoting the model's opening phrase, and similar
internal motives should further weave the Mass
together. But Victoria's 1583 publication of nine
Masses included several which bent the parody "rules"
nearly to the point of ignoring them. His 1583 Mass on
the motet O quam gloriosum, though clearly unified in
the sonic world of the five movements, treats its model
so loosely as to appear freely composed at times.
This Mass, though based on Victoria's own 1572 motet O
quam gloriosum (for All Souls' Day), does not even use
the motet's opening phrase, as would be expected in the
parody tradition; rather, it treats the second incise
of text, "in quo cum Christo" as the principal model
motive which appears at the head of several (but not
all) movements. The powerful and joyous opening series
of chords in the motet may have seemed too distinctive,
or too limiting to the resultant Mass movements.
Instead, Victoria composes five movements which share
several smaller motives derived from other parts of the
motet. The most common are a pair of motives - one
rising through a melodic fourth, the other descending a
third and reascending to tonic - which together set the
model's concluding text, "quocumque ierit." He also
makes excellent use of a series of descending
suspensions which in the motet evoke the penultimate
phrase, "sequntur Agnum:" the voices literally "follow"
one another to form the gesture. This memorable passage
appears several times in the Mass, even bookending the
entire setting by being quoted almost verbatim to close
both the Kyrie and Agnus Dei, the first and last
movements.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom%C3%A1s_Luis_de_Victo
ria ).
Although originally created for four (4) voices (SATB),
I created this Interpretation of the "Missa O quam
gloriosum" (O, how glorious is the kingdom) for
Woodwind Quartet (Flute, Oboe, English Horn &
Bassoon).
Download the sheet music here:
https://musescore.com/user/13216/scores/5654436
PARTITION