Hyperion Records

In the Missa Ave Maria peregrina, mainly for four voices, Peñalosa incorporates sections of the plainchant Ave Maria. However, in addition he uses long sections of Salve regina: beginning in Sanctus and Hosanna, the tenor sings the chant melody associated with the words ‘Spes nostra’ and ‘Illos tuos misericordes’. As a final tour de force Peñalosa constructs the climactic five-voice Agnus Dei around a secular tune, that of the Hayne chanson De tous biens plaine (there being an obvious symbolic significance of a love song in a Mass to the Virgin), in cancrizans canon against the section of the Salve regina beginning at the ‘Vita dulcedo’ verse, all the while surrounding the two structural voices with flowing counterpoints of his own invention.

from notes by Martyn Imrie © 1993