At the end of a Missa pro Defunctis, a Requiem mass, in Spanish liturgical tradition, a sermon was normally preached before the last rites were administered to the deceased. In some instances, a motet was sung between the oration and the absolution. Lobo's motet Versa est in luctum, is such a piece, composed specifically for the funeral of Phillip II in 1598. Phillip was an ardent counter-reformationist, who's rule spanned the 40 years that were the zenith of Spain's influence and power in the world. Since the text Versa est in luctum was not part of the traditional Spanish liturgy Lobo must have found special inspiration in it, for few Spanish composers set texts outside the standard liturgy. It is fully appropriate material for a requiem however, and with its vivid poetic imagery of heavenly harps, organs and voices in songful mourning. Thomas Luis de Victoria in fact made his own inspired setting of the very same text in 1603.



Lobo's work is for six voices, and shows the great salient features of Spanish liturgical music at the time. The composer's ideal is to intensify the meaning of the text, which was in line with the aims of the Counter-Reformation. Although Victoria was to go further in this direction, there is something almost dramatic in the earnestness of Lobo's setting. Although it is at bottom a music, like Palestrina's, based on a stylistic paradigm of steady contrapuntal flow, Lobo, like Victoria, isn't so strict as the Italian about maintaining a perfect sense of balance. Out of the slow river of beautiful notes, stunning phrases sometimes emerge, or bold homophonic internal gestures divert the forward motion somewhat. The full choir is present almost throughout, and Lobo creates, with his wall of gorgeous sound, an appropriately majestic work of mourning.

© Donato Mancini, Rovi