Guerrero’s “Missa Surge Propera” & “Ave Virgo Sanctissima”

SWEMF Workshop for singers and instruments with Huw Morgan
7th June 2025 – St Mary’s Church, Church Rd, Yatton, Bristol

On Saturday 7th June, we had a wonderful workshop day with Huw Morgan studying three movements of Guerrero’s Missa Surge Propera (a later work) and the more famous motet Ave Virgo Sanctissima (composed early in Guerrero’s career).  Huw has a varied musical background including managing His Majesty’s Sackbutts and Cornetts, and is currently music director of several choirs in Bristol and the surrounding area, composes, and is co-founder of an experimental organ collective.

The workshop was for voices (a bit short on tenors, but quality made up for quantity) and instruments: shawm, various cornetti, recorders, sackbuts, bajon (bass curtal).  We started with a thorough warm up for voices and some information about Guerrero’s background and musical context – his working life was spent mainly at Seville Cathedral though he took a long sabbatical making an interesting and adventurous sea voyage to Venice and the Holy Land.  The instrumentalists talked about and demonstrated their instruments.

During the day, Huw showed us how varied the mass movements could be, insisting on arch shaped phrases, identical vowel sounds, listening to intonation, and the instruments playing vocally in the same way.  He preferred not to have many ficta notes except at cadences.  I found his explanations and conducting very clear and the vocal tips made sense for playing an instrument.  Towards the end, he varied the sound of the pieces by alternating voices, instruments and tutti – as they probably did at the time in Seville Cathedral.  We all found his humorous and firm but gentle way of leading the day very engaging.  He clearly loves Guerrero’s music and he transmitted that love to us.

We spent most of the day singing and playing in the round (nearly) of the Chapter House of Yatton Church – so we could all hear everything. For the last session we went into the church itself for the last stages and a final playthrough.

Thanks to Clare Griffel for organising, and to the refreshments team, and especially to Huw for a splendid day of music.

Heather Jenne