Tomás Luis de Victoria, a Spanish composer, dedicated a substantial volume of motets to the Virgin Mary in 1583, rather than to a secular patron, which was common practice.
Composer Biography
Francisco Guerrero, a Spanish composer, received a full musical education as a boy chorister at Seville Cathedral and was employed as a contralto by age fourteen.
Compositional Technique
Victoria's Missa Ave maris stella is based on a 9th-century Marian hymn with a distinctive melody that begins with a rising fifth and soars to an octave.
Composer Biography
Francisco Guerrero traveled to Rome in 1581, where he had a private audience with Pope Gregory XIII and met his Italian colleague Palestrina.
Critical Reception
Francisco Guerrero's motet 'Ave virgo sanctissima' was extraordinarily popular, as evidenced by the many copies found across Europe, and was considered ideal church music.
Historical Context
The veneration of the Virgin Mary became prominent in the Christian Church after the Council of Ephesus in AD 431, which conferred the title 'Theotokos' (God-bearer) on Mary.
Compositional Technique
In the 'Osanna' of his Missa Ave maris stella, Victoria explicitly instructs the tenor voice to sing the first verse of the hymn 'Ave maris stella' instead of the Mass text.
