Tomás Luis de Victoria

Tomás Luis de Victoria was the most illustrious Spanish composer in the Renaissance. His 20 masses and 44 motets are, on the one hand, conservative in the skilled employment of the counterpoint and in their coherent polyphonic texture, and, on the other, they are innovative for the deep moving expression of the text with a very Spanish mystical intensity.

Victoria's music reached great fame in its time, especially his masses, and, though unusual, all his works were published in the composer's lifetime.