Duarte Lobo – Requiem á8, motets by Lobo, Lusitano, and Cardoso

Portugal’s vast treasury of polyphony was lost in the Lisbon Earthquake and resulting tsunami of 1755, obliterating eighty-five percent of Lisbon’s buildings, including the major royal library and cathedral collections. Music from Portugal survives in publications scattered around Europe and the New World. Surviving works like Duarte Lobo’s stunning eight-voice Requiem and the motets and Magnificat heard on tonight’s program at least offer a glimpse into the splendor that was late Renaissance Portugal. Highlights will include the eight-voice Inviolata, Integra et casta by Vicente Lusitano, the first published Renaissance composer of African descent, Asperges me by Manuel Mendes, and Music for Holy Week by Frei Manuel Cardozo.