Toledo Cathedral, Spain,
where Cristóbal De Morales once worked.
Photo: 5 August 2012.
Source: Own work.
Author: Nikthestoned.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Cristóbal de Morales was born in Seville, Spain, and, after an exceptional early education there, which included a rigorous training in the classics as well as musical study with some of the foremost composers, he held posts at Ávila and Plasencia.
Almost all of his music is sacred, and all of it is vocal, though instruments may have been used in an accompanying role in performance. He wrote many Masses, some of spectacular difficulty, most likely written for the expert Papal Choir; he wrote over 100 motets; and he wrote 18 settings of the Magnificat, and at least five settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah (one of which survives from a single manuscript in Mexico).
In addition, he wrote a Missa Pro Defunctis (Requiem Mass). Its peculiarities of transmission, as well as its apparent incomplete editing, suggest that it may be his last work.
The 'Parce Mihi Domine', from his Missa Officium Defunctorum, was used as the key track on the best selling Jazz and Classical Album of 1994, Officium, by Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble.
The 'Parce Mihi Domine', from his Missa Officium Defunctorum, was used as the key track on the best selling Jazz and Classical Album of 1994, Officium, by Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble.
Missa Pro Officium Defunctorum.
Cristobal De Morales
(1500 - 1553).
Available on YouTube
at
