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• Silva, Andrea de: O Virgo Benedicta

Silva, Andrea de: O Virgo Benedicta

for 4 voices or instruments.

Andreas de Silva is a somewhat mysterious figure, about whom relatively little is known, though he does seem to have had a considerable reputation in his lifetime as a composer of church music. He is thought to have been Spanish in origin; in 1513 he composed a motet (Gaudefelix Florentia) on the election of Pope Leo X; subsequently he was a singer in the Pope´s private chapel.
The present motet is one of several from the early sixteenth century written for closely-spaced voices: the top three parts have similar ranges, while the tessitura of the lowest part is about a fifth lower. Other similar pieces of this time include two settings of Quam pulchra es, one by Moulu (already included in this series), the other by Costanzo Festa (to be included in our Per cantare e sonare series), and another piece by de Silva himself, Virgo carens criminibus. The text of the present piece is a free poem in honour of the Virgin Mary.
This motet is printed after Liber primus cum quatuor vocibus, Motetti del Fiore Lyons, 1532. In this edition we have transposed the music down a fourth, on the assumption that the piece was probably intended for tenor and bass voices; the lower pitch is also more suitable for recorders or viols. The version at the original pitch is available as EML 288a. I am grateful to Clifford Bartlett for translating the text.