Of the triad of composers who characterize the "Spanish Cathedral Music of the Golden Age," Francisco Guerrero in our own time gets less attention than he deserves; Cristóbal de Morales and Tomás Luis de Victoria tend to eclipse him both in history books and in modern performances. Yet in his own lifetime, Guerrero maintained an international reputation. He published most of his (lengthy) corpus of compositions abroad, and the prints served Catholic churches throughout Europe and the New World. Indeed, Guerrero's music was still being copied in Spanish colonial cathedrals for at least 200 years. Though he composed more secular music than most of his Spanish contemporaries, he is probably best known for his five-voiced motet, Ave virgo sanctissima. From the time it was published, it became his most popular, and through the long years of its use, it apparently embodied for musicians and critics alike the kind of intense spiritual ardour of the Spanish sixteenth century. As El Greco directs a passionate artistic gaze at his religious subjects, Guerrero shows the depth of his devotion to the Virgin Mary in Ave virgo sanctissima.

Despite the emotional content heard in the motet, Ave virgo sanctissima has at its musical heart the most constrictive device possible: a literal canon between two voices. The uppermost pair of the five voice parts maintain this closely bound musical relationship to the end of the piece. At the same time, the composer manages to infuse a large number of locally poignant effects, as he mirrors his devotional text. Despite the canon, the first cadences sound perfectly complete, as the listener would expect in the invocation of the opening "Ave." As the text proceeds to call Mary the "star of the ocean most clear," Guerrero gives both canonic voices in turn a richly colored chromatic line. The second stanza begins with the greeting word "salve," and both canonic voices and the lower three all sing repeated allusions to the well-known chant opening to the antiphon Salve regina. The composer highlights the word "precious" by a lush shift to a harmonic area more laden in flats, and remains there through the passage comparing Mary to the lily. The ending, numerous repetitions comparing her to the rose, leads to a gentle, yet completely solid cadence—secure in the passion of faith and devotion, yet achieved through highly artificial musical means.

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