Antonio Cifra was probably born in Gaeta, south of Rome, in 1584. From 1605 to 1607 he was maestro at the Roman Seminary, and from 1608 to 1609 he held the same position at the German College in Rome. In 1609 he was hired as maestro di cappella at Santa Casa in Loreto, where he remained for the rest of his life. Cultural connections between Loreto and Rome were close (since Loreto was a pilgrimage destination), and he maintained contact with the composers in Rome during this period.

Cifra was a prolific composer, with 45 separate publications to his credit - psalms, motets, litanies, "Scherzi sacri", masses, polychoral motets and sacred songs, as well as secular music including madrigals in both the Renaissance a cappella and Baroque concertato forms.

Stylistically, Cifra's music varies between masses in the Palestrina style, with much use of homophony (as desired by the Counter-Reformation Council of Trent, which had required that polyphonic elaboration be minimised), and more progressive works in the Venetian style. He was also one of the few composers to be influenced by the extreme chromaticism of Carlo Gesualdo.

The psalms and motets for 12 voices, published in Venice in the year of his death, and presented in this recording as Vesperae Lauretanae, reveal Cifra’s mature late style.