Ave Maria [Alf:36-TC719]

Tomas Luis de Victoria is generally regarded as a giant of his time, the most influential Spanish composer of religious polyphonic music and at least the equal of his better known contemporary, the Roman master Palestrina.  Although much of Victoria's life was passed in residence in Italy, his Spanish origin remained intact, finding its expression in a personal language of ardent religious sentiment and profound Spanish mysticism.  The AVE MARIA, on the composer's most moving and exquisite motets, is a tiny masterpiece which fully illustrates the immersion of Roman discipline in flowing contrapuntal lines of gentle simplicity and in homophonic textures of dance-like, rhythmic buoyancy.  In this edition, note values have been halved and tempos and dynamics added as suggestions for modern performance.