Review

Tomás Luis Victoria
Ave Maria:

Arranged by Edward Hayes; edited by Frank Harmantas

3 tenor, 1 bass trombone

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Publisher: Cherry Classics Music
Date of Publication: 2019
URL: http://www.cherryclassics.com

Score and parts.

Primary Genre: Trombone Ensembles - 4 trombones

Prominent 16th century Spanish composer Tomás Luis Victoria is one of the most celebrated composers of the Renaissance era, selected to succeed Palestrina as maestro di capella of the Roman Seminary in 1571 at the age of 23 years.  Though this composition has been credited to Victoria, doubts of this attribution have arisen.  Spanish musicologist Felipe Predrell included the manuscript of the motet in his compilation of Victoria’s complete works (vol.8, 1913) and it also appears in an updated listing in 1964, yet the work is absent from his oeuvre in the Nueva Edición Victoria compiled by the Centro de Estudios Tomás Luis de Victoria (www.tomasluisvictoria.es/en). The four-voice motet is now identified, by some, to be composed by Jacob Gallus (Jacob Handl). Documentation of support for this reclassification may be examined at http://www.avemariasongs.org/aves/G/Gallus_a4.htm.

Whoever the composer, this transcription is thoughtfully edited and includes appropriate tempo, dynamic, and phrasing indications on clean and easy-to-read score/parts. The initial intonation could be more intuitively notated to indicate the natural stress of the words, but this is a minor question of the editing choice and easily altered, if desired. The range of all parts is manageable, though the trombone 1 part notated in tenor clef with b-flat¹ as its highest pitch functions in a tessitura lingering at or above e-flat¹.  Trombones 2 through 4 are notated in bass clef with the lowest part best performed on a bass trombone. Notated meters utilize a half-note pulse; no technical issues should present an obstacle to performance. This is a fine transcription and should well serve both the single- and multiple-player ensemble.