Musique vocale sacrée

Description

Born in Osuna (province of Seville) in 1555, Alonso Lobo de Borja studied with Guerrero in Seville before returning to Osuna, where he graduated from the university, and then became chapel master at the collegiate church in 1581. He returned to Seville ten years later, where he was Guerrero's assistant and master of the boys' choir, until 1593, when he moved to Toledo as choir master, before returning to Seville in 1604. Between these two dates, he published an important collection of works. He passed away in 1617, at the age of only 62, after having held the two most prestigious positions a Spanish musician of that time could aspire to. The most famous student of Guerrero, the composer enjoyed high renown until, in the second half of the 18th century, Antonio Soler completely ignored him in his treatise "Llave de la Modulacion." Following this oversight, the composer's work fell into obscurity until its revival at the end of the last century thanks to American and British musicologists. The young and brilliant choir "Victoria," along with its director Ana Fernandez-Vega, decided to rectify this injustice by producing this recording that combines fragments of masses with motets, some of which, having survived only in instrumental form, had to be adapted back to their original text. The final track offers a version for soprano and vihuela of a motet for 6 voices, a practice very common in the context of domestic music at the time of the composer, who, evidently, has nothing to envy from his more famous contemporaries Victoria, Guerrero, or Cardoso. (Jean-Michel Babin-Goasdoué)