Luogo e data di registrazione		St. Emmeran, Regensburg (Germania)- 6-10 luglio 1969 (1-14)
	Original Editions		Archiv Produktion | 2533 051 | 1 LP | (p) 1970 | ANA | 1-14)
	Edizione "Codex"		Archiv Produktion "Codex" | 453 164-2 | durata 54' 23" | LC 0113 | 1 CD | (p) 1996 | ADD | stereo
	Produced by		Dr. Manfred Richter
	Tonmeister (Balance Engineer)		Klaus Scheibe
	Editing		Joachim Niss
	Cover		Meister der hl. Veronica "Die heilige Veronika mit dem Schweißtuch Christi" (detail); Munich, Alte Pinakothek
	Art Direction		Fred Münzmaier
	Note		No traceable indication concerning track number 15*. Original-Image-Bit-Processing - Added presence and brilliance, greater spatial definition

ORIGINAL EDITIONS 1 LP - 2533 051 - (p) 1970

Treasures from Archiv Produktion’s Catalogue A rare and valuable collection of documents is the pride of any library or archive. CODEX, Archiv Produktion’s new series, presents rare documents in sound from 50 years of pioneering recording. These recordings have been digitally remastered using original-image bit-processing technology and can now be appreciated in all the richness of their original sound-image. They range from the serene counterpoint of a Machaut, the intensely spiritual polyphony of a Victoria, to the imposing state-music of a Handel. For the artists on Archiv Produktion recordings, a constant aim has been to rediscover the musical pulse of past times and to recreate the spirit of past ages. In this sense each performance here - whether by Pro Musica Antiqua of Brussels in the 1950s, the Regensburg Domchor in the 1960s, or Kenneth Gilbert and Trevor Pinnock in the 1970s - made a vital contribution to the revival of Early Music in our time. CODEX highlights recordings that were unique in their day, many of them first recordings ever of this rare and remarkable repertoire, now appearing for the first time on CD. A special aspect of the history of performance in our century can now be revisited, as great moments from Archiv Produktion’s recording history are restored and experienced afresh. Dr. Peter Czornyi Director, Archiv Produktion VICTORIA: MISSA “VIDI SPECIOSAM” - MOTETS & RESPONSORIES Tomás Luis de Victoria was one of the principal Spanish composers of his time who became known and, in the case of Victoria, even famous outside their own country. He spent a great part of his life in Rome, where he was active as organist and choirmaster at various churches. Then from 1587 onward he was the foremost musician of the Spanish capital Madrid, where he was entrusted with highly responsible tasks. “The Spaniard, enduring the sufferings of the Crucified with a glowing fervor that becomes almost sensual in its dramatic passion” (P. H. Lang), devoted his life as a composer exclusively to liturgical music from which some selected pieces are recorded here. Victoria modeled his Mass Vidi speciosam a 6 on his Assumption motet of the same name (a 6), first published in his 1572 motet collection. Like the two five-part motets from the same book already used as parody sources, Ascendens Christus and Dum complerentur, the Vidi speciosam (2 partes) is in responsory-form (aBcB) - the length of “B” approximating that of  “a” or “c”. The motet Vidi speciosam abounds in archaic dissonance-treatment, and in tantalizing chromaticisms. There is a leap up a fourth from a dissonant (i. e. non-harmonic) note and a series of ornamental resolutions involving dissonant undernotes approached by leap. In the Mass, on the other hand, Victoria uses no non-harmonic notes. Neither does he ever skip to any dissonant undernote when ornamenting resolutions. The Crucifixus (a 4) repeats at bars 80-83 (“Et iterum”) the same chromatic ascent found at “et lilia” in the motet. Between the antepenultimate and penultimate bars of the Benedictus, the bass outlines the first three notes of the nota cambiata figure: after which the bassus leaps up a fourth. The so-called consonant fourth occurs twice during the Credo in this form. The Vidi speciosam brings the total of Victoria’s masses parodied after Canticum canticorum motets to four; the other Masses are: Quam pulchri sunt (Song of Songs, 7:1), Surge propera (2:10), and Trahe me (1:3). Cristóbal de Morales wrote only one such Mass - Vulnerasti cor meum (Song of Songs, 4:9); Francisco Guerrero also composed only one - Surge propera amica mea (2:10). Because of Victoria’s disproportionate attention to texts from this love poetry, he occupies a unique position among Spanish composers. His concern with Song of Songs texts allies him with the most celebrated of contemporary Spanish poets, Fray Luis de León (1527-1591): a major cause of whose imprisonment, from March 1572 until December 1576, was his translation into the vernacular of the book that contains more perfumed language than any other in the Old Testament. The ardor, the longing, and the ectasy of this unique book invaded Victoria’s motets; and in turn such a Mass as this, parodied after a Canticle motet. Vidi speciosam, last of the Canticle Masses and last ofVictoria’s six-voice Masses (excluding the 1605 Requiem), is also his last without an organ accompaniment. As in the opening of the motet, so also in the Mass, he effectively contrasts the lower three voices with the upper three; such antiphony, quoting bars 1-9 of the source motet, distinguishes the outset of both Kyrie I and the Sanctus. Although he makes more use of material drawn from pars 1 than pars 2 in this parody - as in the Dum complerentur Mass - he does draw now and then on pars 2 as well. The motet Dum complerentur a 5 from the same 1572 maiden collection shares with Palestrina’s Pentecost motet of identical name (Rome, 1569) several significant features. (1) Their motets are both in two partes, each of which sets an exactly equal amount of text. (2) Both are responsory-form motets - the “B” in Palestrina’s aBcB reaching 32 breves; in Victoria’s 31. (In both, “B” is ushered in with the words “tamquam spiritus vehementis”.) (3) Not only do the two composers choose the same amount of text for both partes; and the two adopt the same aBcB form, but also they each use approximately the same amount of canvas over which to paint their two panels: 84+66 breves in Palestrina’s motet; 86 + 76 in Victoria’s. To look now at their diptychs in another light and to study the differences: (1) In Palestrina’s setting a 6 ending on F major (Bb key signature), interior parts often cross each other; but cantus and bassus are never crossed by any inner voice. In Victoria’s setting a 5 closing on G (Bb key signature), cantus and quintus cross constantly. Moreover, they switch roles in the second “B” of aBcB. By virtue of their constant crossing they create a synthetic top vocal line that throughout both partes constantly hovers around one note, d1. This hovering creates a mood of expectancy that corresponds with the excited, “on-edge” mood of the text (Acts 2:1-2). (2) Palestrina takes a “black-and-white” picture specifying only 3 accidentals in 150 brcvcs. Victoria shoots his in technicolor - specifying 135 accidentals in 162 breves. This number would no doubt have been even greater had he, like Palestrina, called for six instead of five voices. The other works recorded here belong to Victoria’s one publication dedicated to no earthly patron but to the Deity - the Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae (1585). O Domine Jesu Christe for Palm Sunday had already appeared in the 1572 motet collection, but the responsories Amicus meus and Unus ex discipulis for Maundy Thursday, Tamquam ad latronem and Caligaverunt for Good Friday, and the Lamentation Aleph. Ego vir were making their first appearance in print. No other works of Victoria have so enduringly engraved his fame as his O vos omnes, Vere languores, and the other heartfelt outpourings contained in this superb Holy Week Collection. These are his works that rain tears, as do perhaps no other manifestations of Spanish art. Robert Stevenson For this reissue, an additional motet, Surrexit Pastor Bonus, from Victoria’s collection of 1572, has been released for the first time. In this joyful celebration of Christ the Good Shepherd’s resurrection, Victoria makes skilful interplay between the upper and lower three voices, ending with a resounding sequence of Alleluias.