Tomás
Luis de Victoria
(ca 1548 - 1611)
A
music clear and lovely,
With healing in its wings...
A
fragrance so pure and holy;
The angels begin to sing.
But
lost it is in a world of woe,
where few can hear the chords...
Man cannot reclaim his wings,
'Til he puts away his sword.
Visit:
Nancho
Alvarez's Great Victoria Site
*
Ante
quàm homines essent, in beatus illis mentibus esse inceperit...
Cui enim rei potius seruire Musicam decet, quàm sacris
laudibus immortalis Dei à quo numerus et mensura manauit?...
In animos influens, non animis solum prodesse videtur, sed
etiam corporibus... Quippe ea improbi quidam, ac prauis
moribus imbuti homines abutuntur.
[Music is not man's invention, but his heritage from the
blessed spirits... Music, because instinct with rhythm and
harmony, describes the very being of God... Music can affect
for good or ill the body as well as the mind... Nowadays,
unfortunately, music does often serve depraved ends.]
Tomás Luis de Victoria
The music
created by this composer is believed, by those who really know
it, to be among the most beautiful in the world today.
Composed at the end of the 16th Century, and the beginning of
the 17th Century, the music of Victoria was written for the
church, to be sung as a part of the Catholic liturgy and all
of the texts are in the Latin language, the official texts of
the church...mostly scripture from the Vulgate Bible.
Victoria, a priest, was unique in that he composed no secular
music.
Victoria
composed twenty masses, 44 motets, 36 hymns, 16 alternating
plainsong magnificats (plus a magnificent work for two choirs
and another for three), ten sublime Marian antiphons, 7 psalm
settings for double choirs, 4 sequences, some pieces written
to be included in the liturgy, and a body of music composed
for Holy Week services. All of this music is sublime and
deserves the highest honors as spiritual masterpieces by one
of the greatest composers of the past 2,000 years.
But
Victoria's music would be forgotten today, were it not for a
few learned individuals who know the importance of these works
and keep the flame alive, and a few brave CD labels, choirs
and singing ensembles who have committed some of the works to
disc and perform the music in public. Since
the advent of the CD, one or two recordings a year are
produced in Europe. However, many of Victoria's finest works
yet still remain unrecorded, while the familiar compositions
often get recorded over and over. Only about a half of
Victoria's masses have seen the light of day in commercial
recordings, either LP or CD, and few of the hymns and Marian
motets are available. Additionally, perhaps Victoria's best
known work, the four-part Ave Maria, is generally
regarded by Victoria scholars to not have been composed by
Victoria at all! This well-known Ave Maria, by which
many people have judged Victoria, is found in a single
late 17th Century manuscript in Munich only, and was not
printed among the composer's output at all. It has no
stylistic traits in common with Victoria's compositional style
and should be attributed to "anonymous," not to Victoria.
DoveSong's
Victoria Pages
->
Recordings
of the Music of Tomás Luis de Victoria
We highly recommend that you take a look at our selection
of
recordings of Victoria's music produced on CD. Eventually, we
will be adding LPs and 78s as well.
->
Victoria:
A New Complete Performing Edition, by Jon Dixon
An English gentleman, performing a scholarly labor of love,
is creating a new edition of Victoria's works so that they may
receive their deserved performances by choirs around the
world.
MP3 Examples
->
Agnus Dei From Missa Quarti Toni
-> Magnificat
in the First Mode
-> Magnificat
for three Choirs
Victoria
on the Web
Nancho
Alvarez's Great Victoria Site
Nancho,
who lives in Spain, has performed one of the greatest of all
favors for music. On his site, you will find the COMPLETE WORKS
of Victoria in Midi and PDF formats. I recommend that
every serious lover of music spend a lot of time at this site.
For the first time ever, the complete works of this master
composer are available to be studied and listened to by anyone
in the world.
UPDATE: Since I wrote the above, Nanco has continued to
develop his site and it has now become a model
for the future of music education.
Tomas Luis de Victoria comes alive on this site as Nancho
Alvarez uses internet technology for the fulfillment of the
purpose of true music education! If you are interested in the
music of this great composer, you need go no further than this
web site. If you want to see the future of music research, visit
this site! Don Robertson
Publications
dealing with Victoria
Spanish
Cathedral Music in the Golden Age
By Robert Stevenson
Univ. of California Press
Cambridge University press, 1961
This
book contains the most scholarly writing about Victoria's life
and works that has so far been accomplished and it is suggested
that any serious devotee of Victoria's music try to find a copy
of this rare book in a college music library.
Tomás
Luis de Victoria: A Guide to Research
By Eugene Casjen Cramer
Garland Publishing, Inc, 1998
This
is the book for the serious researcher into the music of
Victoria. Here you will find a very detailed account of
recordings, and manuscript copies of Victoria's music located
the world over.
Studies
in the Music of Tomas Luis De Victoria
By Eugene Casjen Cramer
This
is the book for the serious researcher into the music of
Victoria.
The
New Grove High Renaissance Masters
Section on Victoria by Robert Stevenson
W.W. Norton & Company, 1980
ISBN 0393300935 (paperback)
ISBN 0393016897 (hardback)
This
will serve as a good introduction to Victoria's life and music,
as well as the other great renaissance composers (Byrd,
Palestrina, Josquin des Pres and Lassus.
|
