Ave Maria - Francisco Guerrero, John Rutter, The Cambridge Singers
Ave Maria
From ‘Lighten our Darkness’
Music for the close of day
Composer Francisco Guerrero
Conductor John Rutter
Choir The Cambridge Singers
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During his lifetime and for at least 200 years after his death, Guerrero was one of the most widely published and performed vocal composers of the Spanish Renaissance, second only to Victoria in reputation. From 1551 till his death he worked at Seville Cathedral, but also travelled widely. Ave Maria, published in 1574, is among the most serene and beautiful of his 150 or so motets, similar in mood to the better-known Ave Virgo Sanctissima. Like the Victoria antiphons, it is for double choir and based on a Gregorian chant – the Ave Maria chant was, moreover, familiar to most Renaissance listeners. Its first few notes are heard at the outset of the motet marked out in slow notes by the Choir 2 tenor, echoed in canon by soprano. Although the chant provided a point of reference for listeners (as did the Lutheran chorales found throughout Bach’s church and organ music), the texture woven around it is entirely Guerrero’s own, with a characteristic sense of gracefulness spun out over a leisurely time span.
LYRICS:
Ave Maria, gratia plena; Dominus tecum: Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui Jesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.
(The Angelic Salutation)
(Hail Mary, full of grace! The Lord is with thee: blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now at the hour of our death. Amen.)
Lighten our Darkness
The service of Compline has inspired many incredibly beautiful compositions and this collection gathers together 18 of the many lovely a cappella choral motets written to adorn the evening worship of the church. Composers include Byrd, Guerrero, Rachmaninov and Sheppard, alongside such less well-known masterworks as Rheinberger’s Abendlied and the four great Marian motets of Victoria.
John Rutter, English composer and conductor, is associated with choral music throughout the world. His recordings with the Cambridge Singers (the professional chamber choir he set up in 1981) have reached a wide global audience, many of them featuring his own music in definitive versions. Among John’s best-known choral works are Gloria, Requiem, Magnificat, Mass of the Children, and Visions, together with many church anthems, choral songs and Christmas carols.
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