– Francisco de Peñalosa (1470-1528)
Born in the interior Spanish highlands near Toledo, Francisco de Peñalosa was a
highly regarded composer of the middle Spanish Renaissance. He spent much of
his professional life in the sun-drenched city of Seville, where he served for four
years as the maestro di capilla at the Cathedral – still one of the largest churches
to Rome to work within the Papal chapel. Peñalosa was considered a master – to
such an extent that two of his motets were initially mistaken for compositions by
Josquin Desprez, then considered to be the greatest composer for at least a century.
(Peñalosa himself, like Josquin, was fond of subtle mathematical puzzles within his
compositions.) Unfortunately, Peñalosa did not extend his European travels to
Venice or Antwerp, the two continental centers of music printing at the time. His
music, therefore, never attained the same level of exposure that Victoria, Guerrero,
or Morales were able to achieve in the following generation.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Peñalosa chose to set a number of non-liturgical
and non-scriptural texts; such texts allowed Peñalosa more compositional freedom,
of the music. The text of O domina sanctissima is a prayer that combines regularly
used devotional phrases found in other prayers like “Ave Maria” or “Salve Regina.”
Peñalosa uses many of the compositional techniques of Josquin and his Franco-
homophonic sections. Peñalosa, however, focuses greatly on the intelligibility of the
passages show up frequently; and sections of polyphony are set with relatively few
as at “eripe me” (“snatch me away”) and again at the mention of Jesus. Peñalosa also
uses hints of word-painting, as at the text “miserum” (“wretched”), with its chromatic
dissonances and prolonged suspension.
O domina sanctissima, O most holy mistress,
o piisima, o dulcissima O most loving one, O sweetest one,
o benignissima, o misericordissima, O most kindly one, O most merciful one,
o gloriosissima, maris stella, O most glorious one, star of the sea,
ne derelinquas me do not leave me
miserum et fragilem peccatorem; a wretched and weak sinner;
eripe me et libera me ab omni malo, snatch me away and free me from
all evil,
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