Eleven Sacred Works

Contents

Francesc Valls can be regarded as a key composer for Catalan baroque music, both on account of the importance of the post he held and his intellectual open-mindedness, which led him to take an interest in what was being done in the rest of Europe. Practically all his work is religious, except for a few cantatas and 'tonos humanos'. The religious compositions in this edition could be included in the Hispanic tradition of polyphony, though they are open to the new trends of the time. He is at his most innovative in terms of harmony in some of his four-part motets. The entire Chapel choir must have taken part in performing the four-part works, the choir at Barcelona Cathedral having ten singers at the beginning of the seventeenth century. For the basso continuo ' or 'accompaniment' as it is termed in the manuscripts ' the organ and the violone or bajón (a Spanish form of the bassoon) were used.