Vitoria, Tomás Luis de

VITORIA, Tomás Luis de. - Spanish musician b. at Avila in 1548, d. at Madrid on 27 Aug. 1611.

In 1557 he entered as a singer in the choir of the cathedral of Avila, receiving his first music lessons from the master Espinaz. His progress was rapid and brilliant, so much so that in 1565 he was sent to Rome to continue his studies in polyphony and counterpoint. He was a pupil at the Collegio Germanico, and after three years he became organist and singer at the church of S. Maria in Monserrato, enjoying the protection of Cardinal Truchess, to whom he dedicated, in 1572, his first fruits, the Motets for 4, 5 and 6 voices. In 1575 he was again at the Collegio Germanico, as Palestrina's successor in teaching, and in 1578 he went to live with St. Philip Neri at S. Girolamo della Carità, where he remained until 1585, writing the Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae. In 1596 he went to Madrid as chaplain to the Empress Maria, for whose death he composed the Officium Defunctorum (1605), considered his most inspired work. From 1605 until his death he was organist at the Discalzas Reales.

V.'s artistic output sums up all the greatness of sixteenth-century Spanish art and draws its thematic material solely from the Gregorian repertoire and from his own creative genius. His compositions are animated by a vivid dramatic mysticism and an extraordinary musical expressiveness, often attaining very intense pathetic effects.

Giuseppe M. Llorens