The Spanish Jesuit, Tomas Luis de Victoria, seems to have composed music exclusively in the sacred realm; his particular devotion to the Blessed Virgin is evidenced by his multiple settings of each of the Marian Antiphons (two each of Alma redemptoris, Ave Regina, and Regina coeli, and four of Salve regina). It should come as no surprise to find two quite different settings of the Angelic salutation "Ave Maria" in his oeuvre. A simple Ave Maria for four voices, unpublished during Victoria's lifetime, may have been intended for private devotions, while the double-choir setting for eight voices which closes his first publication, the 1572 Motetca (Venice, Angelo Gardano), serves a grand and public liturgical occasion, the Feast of the Annunciation (March 25). The composer also cared enough about this particular setting to reprint it, together with an organ part, in a 1600 anthology which he published in Madrid.

The form of the text for the eight-voice Ave Maria varies slightly from that standardized by the Roman Breviary of 1568. After the words of the Angel Gabriel to Mary and excerpts from the salutation of her cousin Elizabeth (Luke 1:28, 1:40-52), instead of proceeding through the intercessory prayer ("Sancta Maria"), this version calls her "Regina Coeli," and alludes in text to the closing of the Salve Regina (a section traditionally ascribed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux). There follows the prayer for her intercession with Christ, and a final request that the speaker may, "with all the elect," eventually come to see her.

The musical setting begins with a passage sung in turn by each choir, which brilliantly exposes an allusion to the plainsong "Ave Maria" in the upper voice; each is colored by evocative accidentals (E flat in one voice, next to F sharp in another) and a Phrygian cadence. The following pair of incisiones continues the "expressive" use of accidentals with an utterly Victorian melodic gesture involving a diminished fourth (B-flat down to F-sharp in once voice), which remains prominent through the piece (e.g. "in mulieribus," "Sancta Maria," and the final cadence). Similar textural plans mark the two halves of the motet, moving from clear demarcation between the choirs, to some shuffling of voices (first seen in a suddenly higher grouping at "in mulieribus," and later at "Regina Coeli"). In the first case, this leads to greater complexity of texture ("et benedictus") and a final clarity in all eight voices at the important word "Jesus." In the second, a strident triple-meter chordal passage demanding intercession ("Ora pro nobis") leads to a similar textural intensity until the release of the final cadence. Throughout, the relatively young composer shows an intense facility in manipulating the vocal forces at hand for a powerfully directional affect.



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