Tomás Luis de Victoria

Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548–1611) was the greatest Spanish composer of the Renaissance. He lived and worked in Italy for a couple of decades as a composer and organist. He first studied at the Jesuit Collegio Germanico in Rome and eventually became its maestro di cappella. After some time he was ordained priest and joined the famed Congregazione dell’Oratorio newly formed by Filippo Neri (where the musical genre of the oratorio was born). In 1583 he returned to Spain and served the king’s sister for around sixteen years. When the empress died, Victoria remained at the convent where he had lived for the rest of his life.

Vocal works performed by the San Francisco Bach Choir

Ave Maria
Christe, redemptor omnium
O quam gloriusum est regnum
Salvete flores martyrum
O magnum mysterium