This Marian prayer is often used by the musicians of the Renaissance and always with the same concern to give a sobering work, sober without any artifice, as to better underline the importance of the Marian cult.
In the music tradition of the counter-reform, T. L. of Victoria writes this double-chorus version (SATB + SATB) that highlights the text and helps to its perfect understanding.
Like another version in double-chorus already published (ref. A110906065, by Jacobus Gallus), Victoria offers here an Ave Maria of comfortable tessitures with vocal lines that merge with each other by chaining naturally from one choir to another according to the process of alternatim. A ternary passage gives new vigor to a beautiful piece without any particular difficulty.
It will be advantageous, if the choir is a small ensemble, to oppose a foursome or a small group of singers to a tutti, or the instrumental to the vocal.
