Musurgia Ensemble to perform Portuguese sacred polyphony in Terceira

The Musurgia Ensemble will present the concert “Valde honorandus est” on October 31 at the Igreja do Recolhimento de São Gonçalo in Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira Island. Under the artistic and musical direction of João Francisco Távora, the performance is part of an artistic residency and a recording project focused on 16th and 17th-century sacred music.

The program features works by Renaissance composers Duarte Lobo, Manuel Cardoso, and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. The initiative is informed by historical documents held in the Arquivo Capitular da Sé de Angra, specifically the 1621 Liber Missarum by Duarte Lobo and the 1613 Magnificat book by Manuel Cardoso. These documents serve as evidence of the circulation of Portuguese sacred polyphony in the Azores during the 17th century.

A central piece of the concert will be Duarte Lobo’s Missa Valde honorandus est, which was composed based on a motet of the same name by Palestrina.