Tomás Luis de Victoria

Tomás Luis de Victoria (c. 1548–1611) was Spain's greatest Renaissance composer of sacred music. After his father's death, his uncle became his guardian. A choirboy at Ávila Cathedral, he went to Rome in 1565 with a grant from Philip II, absorbed Palestrina's polyphony and was ordained a priest in 1574.

His motets, masses and Holy Week Offices set Latin texts in expressive polyphony. In 1587 Philip II made him chaplain to the Dowager Empress María at Madrid's Descalzas Reales convent; after she died in 1603 he stayed on as organist. He died there in 1611.