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 …
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina • Viri Galilaei Read more »
The version of the Magnificat Secundi Toni set to the even verses is probably one of Manuel Cardoso’s (1566-1650) best known works and certainly one of most recorded ones.
An edition of three motets for Advent by Francisco José Perdigão, a late-eighteenth-century chapel master of Évora Cathedral, that I prepared for the Sacra XVIII series of the Editions MPMP (it will be published in early-2019 and will be available …
Motets for Advent performed by Grupo Vocal Olisipo Read more »
Fr. Pedro de Cristo (his secular name being Domingos) was a friar at the Augustinian monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra. He was probably born around 1550 and died on December 12th, 1618.
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 …
One of the first editions I prepared for the Polyphonia series of the Editions MPMP in late 2012 was the collection of responsories for Christmas matins by composer Estêvão Lopes Morago which make the number 6 of this series.
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 …
Gregorio Allegri’s (c.1582-1652) Miserere, mei Deus is without any doubt the most mystical work of sacred vocal polyphony of the Catholic world for its association with the musical practices in the Sistine Chapel. Together with Palestrina’s Missa Papae Marcelli it …
In 2015 I shared a interesting documentary I found on YouTube about the great Lisbon 1755 earthquake, a cataclysmic event that marked the Portuguese social and cultural life deeply.
The region where I’m from – the Azores archipelago – is known for its seismic activity that is documented almost since the first settlers arrived in mid-fifteenth century. One of the Azorean chroniclers, Doctor Gaspar Frutuoso, wrote by the end …