Hyperion Records

Salve sola Dei genetrix is a very unusual text. Scored for three high voices with a low voice, it is a setting of an anonymous paraphrase of the Ave Maria text which is heavily influenced by madrigalian gestures and ideas, most notably at the words ‘nunc, et in extrema’ and ‘o ne morte relinquas’ where the use of rhetoric and harmony sounds closer to early Monteverdi than to Byrd himself.

from notes by Andrew Carwood © 2009