[ELS]

the chant Ave Maria and the Victoria Ave Maria

Victoria's Ave Maria, like many works of sacred music of the Renaissance, begins with a chant intonation and then continues with a chant influence. Victoria's Ave Maria is one of my favorite versions.

[AnAmericanMother]

Yep, and our choirmaster's standard performance practice is to lead with the chant and then transition into the motet. It's easy with the Victoria, although you either have to pitch the chant quite high or do a little noodling on the organ to get into the proper key for the Victoria. A true soprano melody is a bit high for the rest of us . . . .

Fortunately for our choirmaster that's not a problem. He can sight read and transpose at the same time, and also create musically- and historically- appropriate transitional filler between two works on the fly.

We were torn between the Victoria "Ave Maria" and the Hassler "Dixit Maria" for this venture, decided the Victoria was more appropriate since we're not quite into Advent yet.