This recording features Vespers music of the type that was performed on high church holidays in 17th-century Rome. Carefully and knowledgeably compiled by Bernhard Pfammatter, the pieces on this world-première recording afford us an acoustical image of Vespers music, a form that was then strictly regulated by its liturgical function within the Vespers service.

This collection of sacred music by Francesco Foggia, which dates from his mature period and is arguably his most important extant collection, contains the pieces most often used in the Catholic Vespers service. One thus finds not only psalms - as is suggested by the title - but also settings of the Magnificat and the Marian antiphons. The miscellany bears the year 1667 as its year of printing and designates its author a maestro di cappella of San Lorenzo in Damaso.

Track Listing:
Gregorian
1. Responsorium «Deus, in adjutorium»
2. Antiphona «Ecce sacerdos»

Francesco Foggia
3. Psalmus «Dixit Dominus»

Gregorian
4. Antiphona «Non est inventus»

Francesco Foggia
5. Psalmus: «Confitebar»

Gregorian
6. Antiphona: «Ideo iure iurando»

Francesco Foggia
7. Psalmus: «Beati omnes»

Gregorian
8. Antiphona: «Sacerdotes Dei»

Francesco Foggia
9. Psalmus: «Laudate pueri»

Gregorian
10. Antiphona: «serve boni»

Francesco Foggia
11. Psalmus: «Laudate Dominum»

Domenico Massenzio
12. Hymnus «Iste Confessor»

Gregorian
13. Antiphona: «Sacerdos et Pontifex»

Francesco Foggia
14. Canticum «Magnificat»

Francesco Foggia
15. Motetto loco Antiphona «De valle lacrimarum»

Gregorian
16. Congedo «Benedicamus Domino»

Francesco Foggia
17. Antiphona mariana «Salve Regina»

Francesco Foggia
18. Motettoo «Gaudent in caelis»