
Masterpieces for the Annunciation
Renaissance Beauty
Sunday, March 26, 3:00 p.m., St. Mary Mother of God
727 Fifth St. NW (at H St.), Washington, DC (Gallery Place Metro)
Morales Missa De beata Virgine
Byrd Gradualia Propers for the Annunciation
Lassus and Morales Ave Maria
* The Feast of the Annunciation, celebrated on March 25, exactly nine months before
Christmas Day, inspired Renaissance composers to write some of their most beautiful
music.
* Byrd's Propers for the Annunciation are a jewel among the Mass Propers for all the
major Marian feasts in the liturgical year included in his monumental Gradualia,
the musical crown of his long and brilliant career.
* Morales's beautiful Missa De beata Virgine is a "paraphrase Mass," with
polyphonic motives derived from the plainchant Missa Cum jubilo for Feasts of the
Blessed Virgin Mary.