Together with Francisco Guerrero’s, Tomás Luis de Victoria’s double-choir setting of the Ave Maria (the only one actually by him) is probably one the “Ave Maria” settings from Iberian composers which I like more (although D. Pedro de Cristo’s setting is also sumptuous).Read more
Tomorrow, March 21st, is seventh edition of the European Day for Early Music. I will be participating, although indirectly, with Grupo Vocal Olisipo for whom I have prepared several editions of eighteenth-century vocal polyphony by composers of Évora Cathedral.Read more
Several of my editions of eighteenth-century sacred vocal polyphony were performed in concert last March 16th in Porto Moniz, Madeira Island, by Grupo Vocal Olisipo. The concert was part of the festival “Música a Norte – Ciclo de Música Barroca” promoted by the Regional Government, and this concert was titledRead more
On June 4th, 2014, I made some recordings with Ensemble Eborensis of the repertory we were singing at the time, taking advantage of the generous acoustic of the archaeology wing of the then Évora Regional Museum (now National Museum Fr. Manuel do Cenáculo), which used to be the archiepiscopal palaceRead more
This psalm-motet by Tomás Luis de Victoria has a powerful and strinking effect. His polychoral music began to appear around the same time as that of Palestrina and Super flumina Babylonis is a polychoral work, although the bassus parts are not always treated in a spatial manner. The work is set for two choirs,Read more
Manuel de Tavares was an early-seventeenth century composer, who was born in Portalegre. He held the post of maestro di capillain several Spanish cathedrals like Baeza, Murcia, Las Palmas and Cuenca (there is an brief text in Portuguese about this composer here).Read more
I have recently publish a brief text on Vicente Lusitano’s chromatic motet Heu me Domine in the online edition of the Portuguesese music magazine Glosas, edited by Movimento Patrimonial pela Música Portuguesa.Read more
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s musical output is quite extraordinary. Although the numbers might suggest a tedious amount of works (and there are quite a few very similar in shape and thematic carving) there is still an enormous field of diversity and of sonic impact on the modern listener.Read more
In 2014 I transcribed the two surviving parts – the altus secundus and the bassus – of Portuguese King D. João IV’s 6-voice motet Anima mea turbata est as an exercise in order to understand if it was possible to reconstruct the remaining four voices from those two.Read more
The motet Veni Domine by Spanish composer Francisco Guerrero is, in my opinion, one of his finest works. The text “Veni Domine et noli tardare” was set to polyphony by numerous Spanish composers: Cristóbal de Morales (with 2 settings), Juan Esquível, and Guerrero. The five-voice (SSATB) motet by Guerrero was published inRead more