Tomás Luis de Victoria is a Spanish composer, singer and organist. He was one of the most famous and important composers of the 16th century. He was born in Sanchidrián in the province of Ávila, Castile, Spain around 1548. His parents, Francisco Luis De Victoria and Francisca Suárez De La Concha have nine children; he is the seventh. His uncle, Juan Luis take care of him after his father passed away in 1557. Victoria started learning how to play keyboard in Ávila since he was very young. He also went to study classical music at St. Giles Boys School in Ávila. In 1565, Victoria got a scholarship to study in Rome due to his piece ‘Liber Primus’ that his uncle offered to the cathedral in Ávila where he was a choirboy at. He studied music and theology at Collegium Germanicum. Later in 1569, he took charge of music at Aragonese Church of Santa Maria di Monserrato. After that, he took up positions at colleges. Music is basically his main thing. Tomas Luis de Victoria died on 27 August 1611 in Madrid, Spain. He composed over 20 masses, 44 motets, 36 hymns, 16 alternating plainsong Magnificats, 10 sublime Marian antiphons, 7 psalm settings for double choir, 4 sequences, and some pieces for holy service. His famous works are ‘Tenebrae Responsories’, ‘Requiem’, ‘Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae’, and Victoria’s first book of Motets.’Tenebrae Responsories’ is one of Victoria’s most famous work. It is a set of 18 motets for 4 voices a cappella. One song that stood out to me is the ‘O Vos Omnes (All You)’. I chose this piece because as I said, it stood out to me because it gave me chills when I first listen to it. It also reminds me of the feelings that I got when I was in a Catholic church and it is beautiful. It sounds like the angels were singing to me from heaven. ‘O Vos Omnes’ was written for SSA but can be sing by SATB or a TTBB also. It is a cappella so there are no instruments to it. The differences of voices in different parts of the songs made it sounds like there are instruments to it which I think it is pretty cool how human’s voice can be beautiful as an instrument. The overall tone of the songs is slow which make it sounds sad. This piece was written in the Latin language. Victoria wrote this piece to be sung as a part of Roman Catholic liturgies for Holy Week. (Recording : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m11B9GuDUmM) (Sheet Music : http://www.free-scores.com/download-sheet-music.php?pdf=8820#)Another Victoria’s piece that I chose is ‘Nigra Sum, Sed Formosa (I’m Black, but Beautiful)’. I chose this piece because I feel that the meaning of the song is different from his other pieces and the vibe that I got from this song is different too. I’m not going to lie but some of his pieces that I’ve heard while researching kind of scared me out a little bit. It makes me feel relax and happy. I can see the image of myself wandering around to this piece. It was written for SATB but can be sung by another type of choir too and again, the instruments are human’s voice. The overall tone is slow but compared to his other pieces, it’s faster and it got a happy feeling to it. The piece is in the Latin language. There is no specific background to this piece; it was written for a church and for the Lord like his other pieces. (Recording : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhE3goWEd9U) (Sheet Music : https://www.uma.es/victoria/pdf/Nigra_Sum_Sed_Formosa.pdf) The other piece I chose is called ‘Ave Maria’. At first, I thought the meaning is going to be sad or scary because just from listening to it, it gave me that vibe. However, after I look up the meaning of it, it is not like that at all. The piece is about how god is with Marie, praising her, and how we are looking up to her. This piece was written for SATB and it is a cappella so, no instrument. It got a slow and scary/mystery vibes to it. Latin is the language used in this piece. ‘Ave Maria’ was written to a Catholic church. (Recording : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXyqPDU0_fM)  (Sheet Music : http://www.free-scores.com/download-sheet-music.php?pdf=2948)In conclusion, I would say that I appreciate Tomas Luis de Victoria’s work very much. All of his pieces have some kind of feeling to it. Other people might say it all sounds the same but I think that it is his style and it makes his pieces stand out. You can tell that this is his piece without looking up who it is and I think that is cool. Finding your own style and maintain it is hard. This is why I appreciate him. And even his pieces are usually written in Latin language, he can still make his piece connect to many people that don’t even know or understand the language. This prove to me that music really has no language. There are many more reason that can make you enjoy and feel connected to a song and Victoria did break that wall for many people. I think it is very impressive that he can compose amazing music like that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom%C3%A1s_Luis_de_Victoriahttps://www.britannica.com/biography/Tomas-Luis-de-Victoriahttps://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/tomas-luis-de-victoria-531.phphttps://study.com/academy/lesson/tomas-luis-de-victoria-biography-music-requiem.html http://www2.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Tom%C3%A1s_Luis_de_Victoriahttp://www.dovesong.com/positive_music/archives/renaissance/victoria.asp