World-premiere recordings of sacred songs and popular hymns from late 16th-century Rome, reviving the work of a forgotten Spanish composer within the rich tradition of laude spirituali.

The lauda spirituale is a song of praise designed for congregational singing which arose in medieval Italy, cast in the local language rather than the liturgical language of Latin. St Francis of Assisi and Jacopone di Todi are the most famous authors of texts which were set as laude spiritual by now-anonymous monk-musicians.

Born in the Duero region of Spain in 1534, Francisco Soto De Langa began his musical training as a treble at the Cathedral of Burgo de Osma before travelling to Rome, where he joined the Sistine Chapel Choir in June 1562: Soto was the first castrato to join its ranks. He would go on to sing with the Choir for 49 years – until 1611 – for the last five of which he served as maestro di cappella.

In Rome, he soon encountered St Philip Neri, founder of the Oratorian church. It was for Neri that Soto composed and arranged the laude spirituali on this album. By this point, the tradition of vernacular hymn singing had evolved from unaccompanied, unison singing to be elaborated with harmony, simple polyphony and instrumental accompaniment. Soto the composer did not write in the refined polyphonic style of Palestrina, his colleague at the Sistine Chapel: these songs and hymns are still fundamentally popular and accessible in character.

To mark the 400th anniversary of Soto’s death in Rome in 1619, the Spanish Church in Rome conceived and realised this project to record a collection of his many surviving hymns, in both Spanish and Italian. The singers are supported by a rich continuo ensemble of violin, theorbos, harp, viola da gamba, percussion and organ, lending colour and variety to the textures. The booklet to this enlightening new release includes an introduction to the history of laude spirituale, the career of Francisco Soto De Langa, and sung texts.