ZEPHYRINUS.: “Tædet Animam Meam”. Requiem Aeternam. Officium Defunctorum. Tomás Luis De Victoria (1548 - 1611). Composed For The Funeral Of The Mother Of Two Emperors.

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“Tædet Animam Meam” are the opening words in Chapter 10 of The Book of Job. Job laments his afflictions and begs God to be delivered from them.

“Tædet Animam Meam”
and ”Requiem Aeternam”.
Tomás Luis De Victoria
(1548 - 1611).
Available on YouTube at
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“Officium Defunctorum” is a musical setting of The Office Of The Dead, composed by the Spanish Renaissance Composer, Tomás Luis de Victoria, in 1603. It includes settings of the movements of The Requiem Mass, accounting for about twenty-six minutes of the forty-two minute Composition, and the Work is sometimes referred to as “Victoria's Requiem”.

“Officium Defunctorum” was Composed for the funeral of The Dowager Empress Maria, sister of Philip II of Spain, daughter of Charles V, wife of Maximilian II, and mother of two Emperors; it was dedicated to Princess Margaret for “the obsequies of your most revered mother”.

The Empress Maria died on 26 February 1603, and the great obsequies were performed on 22 April 1603 and 23 April 1603. Victoria was employed as Personal Chaplain to The Empress Maria from 1586 to the time of her death.

Victoria published eleven volumes of his music during his lifetime, representing the majority of his Compositional output. “Officium Defunctorum”, the only Work to be published by itself, was the eleventh volume and the last Work that Victoria published.

The date of publication, 1605, is often included with the Title to differentiate the “Officium Defunctorum” from Victoria's other setting of The Requiem Mass (in 1583, Victoria Composed and Published a Book of Masses (Reprinted in 1592), including a “Missa Pro Defunctis” for Four-Part Choir).

“Requiem Officium Defunctorum”.
Sung by: The Tallis Scholars.
Musical Director: Peter Phillips.
Composer: Tomás Luis De Victoria (1548-1611).
Available on YouTube at
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“Officium Defunctorum” is scored for Six-Part SSATTB Chorus. It includes an entire Office of The Dead: In addition to a Requiem Mass, Victoria sets an Extra-Liturgical Funeral Motet, a Lesson that belongs to Matins (scored for only SATB and not always included in Concert performances), and the Ceremony of Absolution, which follows The Mass.

Polyphonic sections are separated by unaccompanied “Chant Incipits”, that Victoria printed himself. The Soprano II usually carries the “Cantus Firmus”, though "it very often disappears into the surrounding part-writing, since the Chant does not move as slowly as most “Cantus Firmus” parts and the polyphony does not generally move very fast."