Composer of the Week: Victoria

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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611): Moving to a Convent

Moving to a Convent

Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611), Moving to a Convent

Donald Macleod follows Victoria as he leaves Rome and returns to Spain.

Donald Macleod sees Victoria return to Spain, where he makes the most of his new royal connections.

Donald Macleod sees Victoria return to Spain where he makes the most of his new Royal connections.

Tomás Luis de Victoria has become the most famed Spanish composer of the Renaissance and ranks alongside Palestrina and Lassus as one of the greatest composers of the 16th century. He was a singer, organist, scholar, teacher, and a priest but it was in composition that he made his most significant impact. His motets, Offices for the Dead and music for Holy Week are admired for their great beauty and intensity and his musical talent thrust him into the orbit of Spain’s royal family and the most senior clerics in Rome. His devotion to God sat at the heart of his creative life; and he wrote, “there is not a single thing as useful as music, which, reaching our hearts soft but deeply, provides a clear benefit not only for our soul but also for our body.”

Victoria had been hoping for some time to return home to Spain and seized his opportunity when a position arose in the household of the Spanish Dowager Empress Maria.  Donald Macleod explores this fruitful period in Victoria’s career, in the employ of one of the senior members of Europe’s most powerful family, the Habsburgs.  As part of the Empress’s staff in Madrid, Victoria came regularly into contact with influential members of the Spanish Court and was also involved in music making at the convent where Maria lived.  His job gave him plenty of time to compose and also to travel; he often returned to Rome to oversee his publications and he was able to attend the funeral of the famed composer, Palestrina.

O Ildephonse
Pro Cantione Antiqua
Bruno Turner, director

Pange Lingua ‘more hispano’ a 4
Ensemble Plus Ultra
Michael Noone, director

Victimae paschali Laudes a 8
Ensemble Plus Ultra
Michael Noone, director

Veni, Sancte Spiritus a 8
Ensemble Plus Ultra
Michael Noone, director

Missa pro Victoria a 9
The Cardinall’s Musick
Andrew Carwood, director

Missa Surge Propera a 5 (Credo)
John Potter, voice
Ariel Abramovich, guitar
Jacob Heringman, guitar

Produced by Luke Whitlock

Composer of the Week: Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611)

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Spanish composer Tomás Luis de Victoria.

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of Spanish Renaissance composer Tomás Luis de Victoria.

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Moving to a Convent

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