Tomas Luis de Victoria - as Shakespeare would have said "great name!". He was approximately the contemporary of Shakespeare, Spanish and a counter-reformationist. In music that means that he followed the "dictates" of the church and didn't go out on a limb. One good explanation of being able to understand what that meant is that the WORD, God's Word, wasn't ever to be muddied...it needed to be heard clearly.
There are terms called homophonic and polyphonic - one voice, many voices and the many voice stuff often moves along in kinda a harmonic unison or in "counterpoint" which means the voices move together or they move very independently...the more independent, the harder it is to understand the words, the more "together" the more homophonic the effect and the easier to understand. The church liked "easier". Composers like Victoria wrote in that "old style" against the polyphonic stuff of the musical reformation...got it? Its a complicated subject and this is just a thought on it but if you listen to this you get the idea of the "style".
There are terms called homophonic and polyphonic - one voice, many voices and the many voice stuff often moves along in kinda a harmonic unison or in "counterpoint" which means the voices move together or they move very independently...the more independent, the harder it is to understand the words, the more "together" the more homophonic the effect and the easier to understand. The church liked "easier". Composers like Victoria wrote in that "old style" against the polyphonic stuff of the musical reformation...got it? Its a complicated subject and this is just a thought on it but if you listen to this you get the idea of the "style".
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