Tomás Luis de Victoria, a renowned Spanish composer, created the Officium Defunctorum in Spain in 1603. Following the death of Empress Maria of Austria, for whom it was originally composed, the piece was published in 1605. Victoria's Officium Hebdomadæ Sanctæ (1585) and this composition are widely regarded as his masterpieces.
Victoria was a prodigious Spanish composer born in 1548. At a young age, he was sent to study in Rome by Philip II of Spain. He later became a priest and joined the Oratorian Congregation before returning to Spain in 1586. Victoria served as chaplain to the Dowager Empress Maria, who was the sister of Philip II of Spain, daughter of Charles V, wife of Maximilian II, and mother of two emperors, while working at a convent in Madrid.
His music, which mainly consisted of religious, vocal works such as masses and motets, was related to the polyphony of Palestrina, who he may have studied under in Rome. Victoria lived during the Counter-Reformation's peak, and his music reflected his Spanish mysticism and religious fervor.
Victoria composed the Officium Defunctorum for Empress Maria's funeral, which was held on April 22 and 23, 1603, after her death on February 26 of the same year. The Officium Defunctorum was Victoria's final composition before his death in 1611, and he dedicated it to Margret, Maria's daughter, after making revisions and publishing it in 1605.
The Officium Defunctorum is a six-part SSATTB choir piece, and it may have been intended to be sung with two singers in each part. It includes a complete Office of the Dead, including a Requiem Mass, an extra-liturgical Funeral Motet, a Lesson belonging to Matins, and the Ceremony of Absolution that follows the Mass. Unaccompanied chant incipits separate the polyphonic sections.
The quality of the Officium Defunctorum, which pays homage to the Empress, is widely regarded as the pinnacle of Spanish Golden Age music. Furthermore, musicologists regard this Officium as representative of the entire a cappella music of the Renaissance due to its remarkable flourishing and evolution.
Listen to: Coro RTVE dirigido por Christoph König.
Choral Masterworks