Tenebrae Responsories

Although the Officium Defunctorum (Office of the Dead) is often considered the finest large-scale work by Victoria, the Tenebrae Responsories is surely his most personal. Published in Rome in 1585, this sets the Responses for Holy Week sung in Roman Catholic liturgy over the Triduum, which consists of morning and evening services for each of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Accordingly, the 18 responsories fall equally into three groups that are all in four voice parts, of which 12 are for soprano, alto, tenor and bass, while the remaining responsories feature one or sometimes two of the same voice types. Only in recent decades has it been possible to hear these settings as a continuous sequence in concert or via recording, rather than interspersed across services on the Triduum, yet Victoria’s precise and emotionally direct setting of these texts ensures a cohesive entity, culminating in the tangible emotional uplift of the Responsories for Holy Saturday. Most recordings seek to balance the restraint suggested by this music’s liturgical function with a flexibility of phrasing and immediacy of expression often found in Victoria’s motets. The result is mesmeric in its timeless evocation.