Concert: Il siglo d’oro – Music in honour of the Virgin Mary from 16th-century Spain

Date: Friday 17 June 2011, 7.30pm    Venue: All Saints, Boughton Aluph {venue link »}

Il siglo d’oro – the Golden Age – was the name that Spaniards gave to their great flowering of music in the sixteenth century. Spain brought forth some of the finest writers of the age and the Virgin Mary was a popular subject with all of them. Francisco Guerrero was known as ‘el cantor de Maria’. Much of his highly characterful music was dedicated to the Virgin, from well-crafted four-part pieces to the more splendid double-choir numbers. This fascinating exploration of music from sixteenth-century Spain sets Guerrero alongside his contemporaries and colleagues Morales, Esquivel, Vivanco, Alonso Lobo and the brightest star of all, Tomás Luis de Victoria.