Victoria: O magnum mysterium & Ascendens Christus in altum

Featuring

David Hill
Westminster Cathedral Choir
Tomás Luis de Victoria

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Recording & Production

This album was recorded in Westminster Cathedral, with tracks 1-7 recorded in January 1985 and tracks 8-14 recorded in May 1985.

Compositional Technique

In the 'Missa O magnum mysterium', Victoria varies his four-part vocal texture only twice, including a Benedictus for three voices and an Agnus Dei with divided trebles singing in canon.

Composition History

The motet 'O magnum mysterium' was published in 1572 and later became the basis for a Mass, also for four-part choir, published by Victoria twenty years later in 1592.

Composer Biography

Despite his success in Rome, Victoria yearned for a quiet life in Spain and returned to Madrid to become Chaplain and Chapelmaster at the Royal Convent of the Barefoot Nuns of St Clare.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Victoria considered the Mass to be a happy and often jubilant work, always basing his Masses on joyful motets rather than sad or penitential ones.

Composer Biography

Tomás Luis de Victoria, born in 1548 in Ávila, Spain, was sent to Rome at age seventeen to study at the Jesuit's Collegium Germanicum, patronized by Philip II and the Church.

Composer Biography

During his time in Rome, Victoria was in contact with Palestrina, a renowned Italian Renaissance composer, and many other musicians from across Europe.