Michael Noone: Sebastian de Vivanco

"Until now, the reputation of the Spanish priest-composer Sebastián de Vivanco (c.1551 - 1622) has languished in the shadow of that of his great contemporary Tomás Luis de Victoria. There are many good reasons why this was so. Unlike Victoria, whose music circulated internationally in his own day and has, closer to our own time, long been well-represented in modern editions and recordings, Vivanco, even during the early music explosion of the past thirty years, has been overlooked by all but a few dedicated musicologists, editors, and performers. Far from there being a complete edition of his works, there is not even a reliable complete list of his compositions for casual inquirers to consult (a lack that even the latest 2001 edition of Grove has failed to meet), and his biography, such as it is, is little more than an ad hoc gathering of dates and documentary references. In that sense, Vivanco is to Victoria what Lassus was to Palestrina a century ago..."

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