O Quam Gloriosum est regnum, motet for 4 voices

• Composer: Tomás Luis de Victoria
• Period: Renaissance (1450-1599)

Review

Uniquely among his contemporaries, Tomas Luis de Victoria managed to publish nearly all of his compositions during his lifetime. During a twenty-year period of study and service in Rome, the Spaniard issued a series of lavish prints containing his essays into all the various Catholic sacred genres - music which would serve the Counter-Reformation in Italy, Spain, and the New world for decades to come. As early as 1572 he published, through the famous Venetian firm of Gardano, a collection of some thirty-three motets, for four to eight voices. Among the motets which held his own esteem enough to eventually serve as models for polyphonic Imitation Masses is a four-voiced setting of the All Souls' Day text O quam gloriosum.

A joyful piece like this belies the popular image of Victoria as dark and brooding in temperament. Despite the somber liturgical occasion in which it would be heard - All Souls' Day being the day of Catholic prayer for the dead, and for the saying of a Requiem Mass - Victoria selected a text jubilant in the hope of the departed to live in the Kingdom, in the presence of the Lamb of God, and in constant praise of Him with all the saints. And his setting betrays this sunny prognosis from the opening gesture, a powerfully rising series of chords which proved too distinctive a gesture for use in the Missa O quam gloriosum. The praise of the saints (text "gaudent omnes Sancti") calls forth a burst of rising melismas in all parts, and the motet even closes with a long-held imitative section, as jubilant as an "Alleluia" closing. The only thinning of the textural rhythm occurs at the text "sequntur Agnum" ("following the Lamb"), when a syncopated motive - each voice literally "following" in canon - leads to a delightful series of suspensions. The entire motet looks to the heavenly country of the Blessed with anticipation. ~ Timothy Dickey, Rovi

Albums with Complete Performances of the Work

Title	Date
100 Hymns & Songs of Inspiration	2003
100 Hymns & Songs of Inspiration	2003
Allegri: Miserere	1996
Allegri: Miserere; Tallis: Spem In Alium
Beyond Chant: Mysteries of the Renaissance	1994
Blessed Spirit: Music of the Soul's Journey	2000
Cathedral Music from Galway
Et Jesum: Motets for Solo Voice by Tomás Luis de Victoria	2004
Et Jesum: Motets for Solo Voice by Tomás Luis de Victoria	2004
Gloria!	1994
Gloria: Classical Music for Reflection and Meditation	1999
Into the Light	2007
Into the Light [Japan Edition]	2007
Into the Light [Japan Edition]	2007
Into the Light [Japan]	2007
Into the Light [Japan]	2007
Masterpieces of Sacred Polyphony	1996
Nine Centuries of Choral Music	2008
Nun lob mein Seel den Herren
Oxford Church Anthems	1995
Palestrina: Missa Tu Es Petrus; Victoria: Missa
Pilgrimage to Santiago	2006
Sing Unto God	2007
Songs of the Soul	2005
The Music of Byrd and His Contemporaries	1965
Tómas Luis de Victoria: Sacred Works	2011
Tómas Luis de Victoria: Sacred Works	2011
Victoria, Palestrina: Masses & Motets	2006
Victoria, Palestrina: Masses & Motets	2006
Victoria: Ave Maris Stella; O Quam Gloriosum	1996
Victoria: Masses	1992
Victoria: O Quam Gloriosum; O Quam Gloriosum	1996
Word Incarnate	1996

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