Tomás Luis de Victoria

Tomás Luis de Victoria (sometimes Italianised as da

Vittoria; c. 1548 – 20/27 August 1611) was the most famous
composer in 16th-century Spain, and was one of the most
important composers of the Counter-Reformation, along
with Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Orlando di Lasso.
Victoria was not only a composer but also an accomplished
organist and singer as well as a Catholic priest. However, he
preferred the life of a composer to that of a performer.[1]

Contents
Life and career
Music
Works
An imaginary portrait by an unknown
Motets 19th-century artist.
Canticles
Hymns
Magnificats
Lamentations
Passions
Psalms
Tenebrae Responsories
Sequences
Recordings
Notes
References
External links

Life and career

Victoria was born in Sanchidrián in the province of Ávila, Castile around 1548 and died in
1611.[2] Victoria's family can be traced back for generations. Not only are the names of the
members in his immediate family known, but even the occupation of his grandfather.[3] Victoria
was the seventh of nine children born to Francisco Luis de Victoria and Francisca Suárez de la
Concha. His mother was of converso descent.[4] After his father's death in 1557, his uncle, Juan
Luis, became his guardian. He was a choirboy in Ávila Cathedral. Cathedral records state that
his uncle, Juan Luis, presented Victoria's Liber Primus to the Church while reminding them
that Victoria had been brought up in the Ávila Cathedral.[5] Because he was such an
accomplished organist, many believe that he began studying the keyboard at an early age from a
teacher in Ávila.[6] Victoria most likely began studying "the classics" at St. Giles's, a boys' school
in Ávila. This school was praised by St.Teresa of Avila and other highly regarded people of
music.[7]

After receiving a grant from Philip II in 1565, Victoria went to Rome and became cantor at the
German College founded by St. Ignatius Loyola.[8] He may have studied with Palestrina around
this time, though the evidence is circumstantial; certainly he was influenced by the Italian's
style. For some time, beginning in 1573, Victoria held two positions, one being at the German
College and the other being at the Pontifical Roman Seminary. He held the positions of
chapelmaster and instructor of plainsong. In 1571, he was hired at the German College as a
teacher and began earning his first steady income.[9] After Palestrina left the Seminary, Victoria
took over the position of maestro.[10] Victoria was ordained a priest in 1574 by bishop Thomas
Goldwell. Before this he was made a deacon, but did not serve long in that capacity as typically
deacons became priests soon after.[11] In 1575, Victoria was appointed Maestro di Capella at S.
Apollinare.[12] Church officials would often ask Victoria for his opinion on appointments to
cathedral positions because of his fame and knowledge.[13] He was faithful to his position as
convent organist even after his professional debut as an organist.[14] He did not stay in Italy,
however.

In 1587 Philip II honoured Victoria's desire to return to his native Spain, naming him chaplain
to his sister, the Dowager Empress María, daughter of Charles V, who had been living in
retirement with her daughter Princess Margarita at the Monasterio de las Descalzas de St. Clara
at Madrid from 1581. In 1591, Victoria became a godfather to his brother Juan Luis's daughter,
Isabel de Victoria.[15] Victoria worked for 24 years at Descalzas Reales, serving for 17 years as
chaplain to the Empress until her death, and then as convent organist. Victoria was also being
paid much more at the Descalzas Reales than he would have earned as a cathedral
chapelmaster, receiving an annual income from absentee benefices from 1587–1611. When the
Empress Maria died in 1603, she willed three chaplaincies in the convent, with one going to
Victoria. According to Victoria, he never accepted any extra pay for being a chapelmaster, and
became the organist rather than the chapelmaster.[16] Such was the esteem in which he was held
that his contract allowed him frequent travel away from the convent. He was able to visit Rome
in 1593 for two years, attending Palestrina's funeral in 1594. He died in 1611 in the chaplain's
residence and was buried at the convent, although his tomb has yet to be identified.

Music
Victoria is the most significant composer of the Counter-Reformation in Spain, and one of the
best-regarded composers of sacred music in the late Renaissance, a genre to which he devoted
himself exclusively. Victoria's music reflected his personality,[17] expressing the passion of
Spanish mysticism and religion.[10] Victoria was praised by Padre Martini for his melodic
phrases and his joyful inventions.[18] His works have undergone a revival in the 20th century,
with numerous recent recordings. Many commentators hear in his music a mystical intensity
and direct emotional appeal, qualities considered by some to be lacking in the arguably more
rhythmically and harmonically placid music of Palestrina. There are quite a few differences in
their compositional styles, such as treatment of melody and quarter-note dissonances.[19]
Victoria was a master at overlapping and dividing choirs with multiple parts with a gradual
decreasing of rhythmic distance throughout. Not only does Victoria incorporate intricate parts
for the voices, but the organ is almost treated like a soloist in many of his choral pieces.[20]
Victoria did not originate the development of psalm settings or antiphons for two choirs, but he
continued and increased the popularity of such repertoire.[21] Victoria republished works that
had appeared previously, and incorporated revisions into each reissue.[22]

Victoria published his first book of motets in 1572.[23] In 1585 he wrote his Officium
Hebdomadae Sanctae, a collection which included 37 pieces that are part of the Holy Week
celebrations in the Catholic liturgy, including the eighteen motets of the Tenebrae
Responsories.[24]

Two influences in Victoria's life were Giovanni Maria Nanino and Luca Marenzio, whom
Victoria admired for their work in madrigals rather than church music.[25] It has been
speculated that Victoria took lessons from Escobedo at an early age before moving to Rome.[12]

Victoria claimed that he composed his most creative works under his patron Otto, Cardinal von
Truchsess. However, Stevenson does not believe that he learned everything about music under
Cardinal Truchsess's patronage; Victoria would like people to believe such a fact.[23] During the
years that Victoria was devoted to Philip II of Spain, he expressed exhaustion from his
compositional work. Most of the compositions that Victoria wrote that were dedicated to
Cardinal Michele Bonelli, Philip II of Spain, or Pope Gregory XIII were not compensated
properly.[24]

Stylistically, his music shuns the elaborate counterpoint of many of his contemporaries,
preferring simple line and homophonic textures, yet seeking rhythmic variety and sometimes
including intense and surprising contrasts. His melodic writing and use of dissonance is more
free than that of Palestrina; occasionally he uses intervals which are prohibited in the strict
application of 16th century counterpoint, such as ascending major sixths, or even occasional
diminished fourths (for example, a melodic diminished fourth occurs in a passage representing
grief in his motet Sancta Maria, occurred). Victoria sometimes uses dramatic word-painting, of
a kind usually found only in madrigals. Some of his sacred music uses instruments (a practice
which is not uncommon in Spanish sacred music of the 16th century), and he also wrote
polychoral works for more than one spatially separated group of singers, in the style of the
composers of the Venetian school who were working at St. Mark's in Venice.

His most famous work, and his masterpiece, Officium Defunctorum, is a Requiem Mass for the
Empress Maria.[10]

Works
Masses (number of voices)

Alma redemptoris mater (8)

Ascendens Christus (5)
Ave maris stella (4)
Ave regina coelorum (8)
De Beata Maria Virgine (5)
Dum complerentur (6)
 Gaudeamus (6)
Laetatus sum (12)
O magnum mysterium (4)
O quam gloriosum (4)
Pro defunctis (4)
Pro defunctis (6)
Pro Victoria (9)
Quam pulchra sunt (4)
Quarti toni (4)
Salve regina (8)
Simile est regnum coelorum (4)
Surge propera (5)
Trahe me post te (5)
Vidi speciosam (6)

Spurious

Dominicalis (4)
Pange lingua (4)

Magnificat (each sets just the odd verses polyphonically, or just the even verses, a few set all)

Odd / Even

primi toni (4)

secondi toni (4)
terti toni (4)
quarti toni (4)
quinti toni (4)
sexti toni (4)
septime toni (4)
octavi toni (4)

Both

primi toni (8)

sexti toni (12)

Lamentations

Cogitavit Dominus (4)

Ego vir videns (5)
Et egressus est (4)
Incipit lamentation Jeremiae (4)
Incipit oratio Jeremiae (6)
Manum suam (5)
Matribus suis dixerunt (4)
 Misericordiae Domini (4)
Quomodo obscuratum (4)

Motets
Four voices

Beati inmaculatin
Benedicam Dominum
Date ei de fructu
Doctor bonus amicus Dei Andreas
Domine non sum dignus
Duo seraphim clamabant
Ecce sacerdos magnus
Ego sum panis vivus
Estote fortes in bello
Gaudent in coelis animae Sanctorum
Hic vir despiciens mundum
Iste sanctus pro lege
Magi viderunt stellam
Ne timeas, Maria
O decus apostolicum
O doctor optime
O magnum mysterium
O quam gloriosum est regnum
O quam metuendus
O regnum coeli
O sacrum convivium
O vos omnes
Pueri Hebraeorum
Quam pulchri sunt grassus tui
Sancta Maria, succurre miseris
Senex puerum portabet
Veni, sponsa Christi
Vere languores nostros

Five voices

Ascendens Christus in altum

Cum beatus Ignatius
Descendit angelus Domini
Dum complerentur dies Pentecostes
Ecce Dominus veniet
Gaude, Maria virgo
O lux et decus Hispaniae
 Resplenduit facies ejus

Six Voices

Ardens est cor meum

Beata es Virgo Maria
Benedicta sit Sancta Trinitas
Congratulamini mihi
Nigra sum
O Domine Jesu Christe
O sacrum convivium
Quem vidistis, pastores
Surrexit Pastor Bonus
Trahe me post te
Tu es Petrus
Vadam, et circumibo civitatem
Vidi speciosam
Versa est in luctum

Eight voices

Ave Maria
Domine in virtute tua
O Ildephonse
Vidi speciosam

Canticles
Benedictus Dominus
Nunc dimittis (4)
Nunc dimittis (5)

Hymns
(All 4 voices except Tantum ergo, 5)

Ad caenam agni provide

Ad preces nostras
Aurea luce et decore
Ave maris stella (even verses)
Ave maris stella (odd verses)
Christe redemptor omnium I
Christe redemptor omnium II
Conditor alme siderum
Decus egregie Paule
 Deus tuorum militum
Exultet caelum laudibus
Hostis Herodes impie
Huius obtentu Deus
Iste confessor
Jesu corona virginum
Jesu nostra redemptio
Lauda mater Ecclisia
Lucis creator optime
O lux beata Trinitas
Pange lingua I
Pange lingua II
Quicumque Christum queritis
Quodcumque vinclis (also Petrus beatus catenarum)
Rex gloriose martyrum
Salvete flores martyrum
Sanctorum meritis
Tantum ergo sacramentum
Te Deum laudamus
Te lucis ante terminum
Tibi Christe splendor patris
Tristes errant apostoli
Urbs beata Jerusalem
Veni creator spiritus
Vexilla Regis prodeunt I
Vexilla Regis prodeunt II

Magnificats
(odd or even verses, 4 voices)

Primi toni (4)

Secondi toni (4)
Terti toni (4)
Quarti toni (4)
Quinti toni (4)
Sexti toni (4)
Septime toni (4)
Octavi toni (4)

Both

Primi toni (8 voices)

Sexti toni (12 voices)
Lamentations
(number of voices)

Maundy Thursday

Incipit lamentation Jeremiae (4)

Et egressus est (4)
Manum suam (5)

Good Friday

Cogitavit Domino's (4)

Matribus suis dixerunt (4)
Ego vir videns (5)

Holy Saturday

Misericordiae Domini (4)

Quomodo obscuratum (4)
Incipit oratio Jeremiae (6)

Lesson

Taedet animam meam

Litany

de beata Virgine

Passions
St. Matthew
St. John

Psalms
(Number, voices, [Mode, verses])

Nisi Dominus (126, 8)

Super flumina Babylonis (136, 8)
Dixit Dominus (109, 8)
Laudate pueri Dominum (112, 8)
Laudate Dominum omnes gentes (116, 8)
Laudate sum (121, 12)
 Ecce nunc benedicite (135, 8)
Dixit Dominus (109, 4, I, odd)
Confitebor tibi Domine (110, 4, 4, odd)
Beatus vir (111, 4, 8, even)
Laudate pueri Dominum (112, 4, 6, even)
Lauda Jerusalem (147, 4, 7, odd)
Confitebor tibi Domine (110, 4, 4, even)
Beatus vir (111, 4, 8, odd)
Nisi Dominus (126, 4, 8, odd)
Credidi (115, 4, 6, odd)

Tenebrae Responsories
Thursday Matins

Amicus meus
Judas mercator pessimus
Unus ex discipulis meis

Thursday Lauds

Eram quasi agnus

Una hora
Seniores populi

Friday Matins

Tamquam ad latronem
Tenebrae factae sunt
Animam meam dilectam

Friday Lauds

Tradiderunt me
Jesum tradidit impius
Caligaverunt oculi mei

Saturday Matins

Recessit pastor noster

O vos omnes
Ecce quomodo moritur Justus

Saturday Lauds

Astiterunt reges terrae

 Aestimatus sum
Sepulto Domino

Sequences
Lauda Sion salvatorem (8)
Victimae Paschali (8)
Veni Sancte Spiritus (8)

Recordings
The following are recordings of music by Tomás Luis de Victoria. As in all of his music, the texts
are in Latin and drawn from the Roman Catholic Liturgy.

Victoria, Tenebrae Responsories. Pro Cantione Antiqua: Deutsche Harmonia Mundi CD

GD77056
Victoria, Et Jesum. Motets, antífonas y partes de miss. Carlos Mena, Juan Carlos Rivera:
CD Harmonia Mundi Iberica 987042
Victoria, Officium Defunctorum. Musica Ficta, Raúl Mallavibarrena: Enchiriadis CD EN 2006
Victoria, Sacred Works. Ensemble Plus Ultra: DGG Archiv CD DDD 0289 477 9747 0 AM 10
Victoria, Tenebrae Responsories. The Tallis Scholars: GIMELL. CDGIM 022
Victoria, Lamentations of Jeremiah. The Tallis Scholars: GIMELL. CDGIM 043
Victoria, Gesualdo, Palestrina, White, Lamentations. Nordic Voices: CHANDOS
CHACONNE. CHAN 0763
Victoria, Misas y Motetes. Ars Combinatoria, Canco López: Musaris. Mars 03-21161/16.

Select recordings of music by Victoria are discussed in an article published in March 2011 by
Gramophone[26]

Notes
1. O'Regan, Noel. "Victoria, Soto and the Spanish Archconfraternity of the Resurrection in
Rome." Early Music 22 no. 2 (1994): 279.
2. Wojcicka-Hruza, Lucy. "A Manuscript Source for Magnificats by Victoria." Early Music 25 no.
1 (1997): p. 83.
3. Stevenson, Robert M. "Tomas Luis de Victoria: Unique Spanish Genius." Inter-American
Music Review 12 no. 1 (1991): p. 1.
4. Tejero Robledo, Eduardo, "Tomás Luis de Victoria (Ávila, 1548 – Madrid, 1611) y su linaje
converso", pp. 33–70.
5. Stevenson, 6.
6. Stevenson, 8.
7. Stevenson, 10–11.
8. Trend, J. B. The Music of Spanish History. New York: Kraus Reprint Corporation, 1965, p.
158.
9. Stevenson, 12–13.
10. Slonimsky, 1073.
11. Stevenson, 19.
12. Trend, 158.
13. Stevenson, 25.
14. Stevenson, 12.
15. Stevenson, 24.
16. Stevenson, 26–27.
17. Trend, 160.
18. Trend, 163.
19. Kriewald, James Arthur. The Contrapuntal Practices of Victoria. The University of
Wisconsin, p. 2.
20. Trend, 164.
21. O'Regan, 283.
22. Wojcicka-Hruza, 83.
23. Stevenson, 13.
24. Stevenson, 21.
25. Trend, 157.
26. Tomás Luis de Victoria – a 400th-anniversary profile (http://www.gramophone.co.uk/features
/focus/tom%C3%A1s-luis-de-victoria-%E2%80%93-a-400th-anniversary-profile), by Edward
Breen, Gramophone online, March 2011

References
G. Edward Bruner, DMA: "Editions and Analysis of Five Missa Beata Virgine Maria by the
Spanish Composers: Morales, Guerreo, Victoria, Vivanco, and Esquivel." DMA diss.,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1980.[facsimile: University Microfilms
International, Ann Arbor, MI]
Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0-
393-09530-4
Kriewald, James Arthur. The Contrapuntal Practices of Victoria. The University of
Wisconsin.
O'Regan, Noel. "Victoria, Soto and the Spanish Archconfraternity of the Resurrection in
Rome." Early Music 22/2 (1994).
Olmos, Ángel Manuel: "El testamento y muerte de Tomás Luis de Victoria. Nuevos
familiares del músico y posible razón para su vuelta a España", Revista de Musicología, vol.
XXXV, nº1 (2012), pp. 53–60
Olmos, Ángel Manuel: "Las obras de Tomás Luis de Victoria en la tablatura para órgano de
Pelplin (Polonia), Biblioteka Seminarium, 304–8, 308a (1620–1630)", en Morales, Luisa
(Ed.): Cinco Siglos de Música de Tecla Española, ISBN 978-84-611-8235-0 (Leal, 2007),
pp. 87–124
Olmos, Ángel Manuel: "Tomás Luis de Victoria et le monastère des 'Descalzas' à Madrid :
réfutation d'un mythe", Le Jardin de Musique, I/2, (2004) pp. 121–128
Olmos, Ángel Manuel: "Aportaciones a la temprana historia musical de la capilla de las
Descalzas Reales (1587–1608)", Revista de Musicología, vol. XXVI, nº 2 2003, pp. 439–
489
The Concise Edition of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 8th ed. Revised by
Nicolas Slonimsky. New York, Schirmer Books, 1993. ISBN 0-02-872416-X
Stevenson, Robert M. "Tomas Luis de Victoria: Unique Spanish Genius." Inter-American
Music Review 12/1 (1991).
Trend, J. B. The Music of Spanish History. New York: Kraus Reprint Corporation, 1965.
 Wojcicka-Hruza, Lucy. "A Manuscript Source for Magnificats by Victoria." Early Music 25/1
(1997).

External links
Victoria's Spanish-English webpage (http://tomasluisdevictoria.org/) (contains: facsimiles,
biography, chronology, the opera omnia, scores, mp3s, apocryphal pieces, interpretation,
books, editions, disks, texts, top-10, trivia, links, acknowledgements and other scores)
Free scores by Tomás Luis de Victoria at the International Music Score Library Project
(IMSLP)
Free scores by Tomás Luis de Victoria in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
The Mutopia Project has compositions by Tomás Luis de Victoria (http://www.mutopiaproject
.org/cgibin/make-table.cgi?Composer=VictoriaTLd)
Listen to a free recording of a songs (http://www.acc.umu.se/~akadkor/early/IVL_Victoria_To
mas_Luis%20de.html) from Umeå Akademiska Kör (http://www.acc.umu.se/~akadkor/index
ENG.html).
Conservatorio Profesional de Música Tomás Luis de Victoria de Ávila. (http://www.conservat
oriodeavila.es/)
Motets O magnum mysterium (https://web.archive.org/web/20070520191930/http://bach.na
u.edu/Victoria/OMagnum.html) and O Vos omnes (https://web.archive.org/web/2007052019
0941/http://bach.nau.edu/Victoria/OVos.html) as interactive hypermedia at the BinAural
Collaborative Hypertext (http://bach.nau.edu/)
Live recording of the motet O magnum mysterium (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPiX
8M12yJ4) (The Choir of Somerville College, Oxford)
Popule meus by baritone X. Dupac with Coro Universitario Complutense Madrid (https://ww
w.youtube.com/watch?v=4C0C0_HaH60)
Victoria – a 400th anniversary profile (http://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/focus/tom%C3
%A1s-luis-de-victoria-%E2%80%93-a-400th-anniversary-profile) Biography, major works
and recommended recordings, by Edward Breen for Gramophone
Maestros del Siglo de Oro, Morales, Guerrero, Victoria, La Capella Reial de Catalunya,
Hespèrion XX, dir. Jordi Savall, Alia Vox AVSA9867 (http://www.classicalacarte.net/Fiches/9
867.htm)
Tomás Luis de Victoria (http://www.cancioneros.si/mediawiki/index.php?title=Tom%C3%A1s
_Luis_de_Victoria), at Cancioneros Musicales Españoles (http://www.cancioneros.si/media
wiki).

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