The motet Ecce mulier Chananea by Fr. Manuel Cardoso1 ❧ Manuel Cardoso was baptized on 11 December 1566, in the Parish Church of Fronteira, being most of his biographic details transmitted by the chronicler of the Carmelite Order, Fr. Manuel de Sá, who, in 1724, published the Memorias historicas… da Ordem de Nossa Senhora do Carmo, where three pages were …
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The motet Mulier quae erat by Manuel Cardoso ❧ Manuel Cardoso was born in the small Portuguese village of Fronteira (near the Spanish border), possibly in the second semester of the year of 1566, since he was baptized on 11 December of that year in the Parish Church of this Alentejo village. The biographical details of Manuel Cardoso were passed …
The motet Dominus dabit benignitatem by Ludovico Balbi ❧ Both the sixteenth as the seventeenth centuries were times when an almost infinite number of musicians worked in European religious institutions at a higher level never seen after. I have frequently stated this in several conferences and talks followed by the fact that everyday there is an unknown composer that was …
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The motet Cantantibus organis by Giovanni P. da Palestrina ❧ So much has been written about Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s compositions that it would be fruitless to follow the same approach to his music as many accomplished scholars have done so. So, in this text I’ll offer a personal perspective to a motet that has eluded me for some time. …
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The motet Assumpta est Maria by Giovanni P. da Palestrina ❧ No Renaissance composer and few later ones have been as proficient as Palestrina at writing positive, outward-going, major-key music, and in this context Assumpta est Maria represents one of the most important works of the period. With these words Peter Philips (director of The Tallis Scholars) mentioned Giovanni Pierluigi …
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Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina died on 2 February 1594. Several months earlier, a collection of 68 motets was published. Although it appeared at the end of 1593 it is generally thought that these motets were composed over a period of years. Many have interpreted this publication as a summation of Palestrina’s life’s work. It was the last of the many …
The motet Ad te levavi animam meam by Palestrina ❧ read more »
The city of Évora, Alentejo, Portugal, is known for its musical history regarding the great Portuguese masters of polyphony of the first half of the seventeenth century. Names like Fr. Manuel Cardoso, Duarte Lobo, Filipe de Magalhães are known throughout the world as leading figures with biographical and professional relations with Évora Cathedral.
Flemish composer and singer Cornelis Verdonck was born in Turnhout sometime during the year 1563 and died in Antwerp on 5 July 1625. He was a choirboy at Antwerp Cathedral and in 1572 was enrolled as a singer at the court of Felipe II of Spain being colleague to other singers of Flemish origin such as Peeter Cornet and Philippe …
The motet Ave gratia plena by Cornelis Verdonck ❧ read more »
Many sixteenth and seventeenth-century composers have set the text O Magnum mysterium with wonderful polyphonic results, such as Willaert, Gabrieli, Palestrina, Victoria, and, Morales only to name a few. In Portugal during this period we find at least three settings of this text – all as responsories – by Pedro de Cristo, Duarte Lobo and Estêvão Lopes Morago respectively, being …
The motet O magnum mysterium by Cristóbal de Morales ❧ read more »