AVE MARIA . . . VIRGO SERENA

Famous four-voicedmotetofJosquin Desprezoften cited as an early examplepar excellenceof the technique of structuralimitation, which he did so much to perfect. The strophic text is a pastiche of asequencesung at the Feast of the Annunciation, a well-known 15th-century prayer, and a common invocation at the end. Josquin composes a different type of imitative texture for each strophe, including strict, free, and pairedimitation, and an apparentlyhomophonicpassage that hides acanon. The piece may come from Milan in the 1470s, and it requires about five minutes to sing.