The small-scale motet was at the heart of daily and weekly musical practice in the Roman Catholic Church of the mid-seventeenth century. One of the genre’s most distinguished exponents was the maestro di cappella in the Jesuit Church in Rome, Bonifazio Graziani.

An ordained priest, he was commissioned by Pope Innocent X to compose solemn music for the ‘most holy year’ of 1650, and his works were in demand across Europe. His elegant mixture of text, melody and harmonic accompaniment is highly distinctive, with the two oratorios revealing the extent of his compositional breadth.