Asperges me (a5) - Cristóbal de Morales

Performed live as part of the London International Early Music Festival Young Ensemble Competition Final in November 2020. Please consider visiting to watch our latest project! Any support you can offer us is hugely appreciated. Thank you. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Christóbal de Morales () is widely considered to be the first international Spanish composer; the greatest before Tomás Luis de Victoria (). He spent at least ten years in the employ of the Vatican, helped by the preference for Spanish singers among the Spanish popes. His music was incredibly forward-thinking, with rhythm complexity and polyrhythmic passages not dissimilar to textures and techniques found in the then nascent Italian madrigal school. The Asperges Me is a text commonly sung to plainsong at the beginning of Mass. Morales’ setting for five voices keeps the rough