Requiem by Victoria

The leading  Spaniard polyphonists Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611) was influenced by the Roman music of the time during a stay in Italy. On his return to Castile he forged a reputation as one of the most famous musicians of the period. 

King Felipe II appointed him the personal chaplain of his sister, Empress Maria of Austria and Portugal, who had entered the Convent of Las Descalzas Reales in Madrid when she became a widow. On her death in 1603, Victoria wrote this Officium defunctorum for a choir of six voices. Published two years later, it soon became famous. Victoria’s music featured in almost all the funeral services held in different places for the empress and, once the work had been published, he dedicated it to Margaret, Maria’s daughter, who had also withdrawn to the same convent in Madrid.