The sacred music of Girolamo Frescobaldi (Ferrara 1583 - Rome 1613) has long remained in the shadow of his extraordinary keyboard production. The relative lack of interest in this side of his activities can probably be attributed in some degree to the not altogether flattering opinions expressed by his contemporaries on Frescobaldi as a composer of sacred music; a good example is provided by the comments of the seventeenth-century musician Antimo Liberati, who defined Frescobaldi as “a wonder of the keyboard, both with his hands and the quill”, but as “no less unhappy and inept as a composer of vocal music”. Notwithstanding these judgements, Frescobaldi published at least two volumes of motets (only one of which, however, has survived, unfortunately without the Altus) and contributed compositions to a large number of collective anthologies of motets published in his lifetime. Besides the printed motets, a number of other compositions have survived in manuscript form; in such cases, however, the attributions must clearly be taken with due caution. Two eight-part Masses attract particular attention: The Missa “sopra l’aria di Fiorenza” and the Missa “sopra l’aria della Monaca”. Frescobaldi’s is thus a highly respectable output, despite the fact that he held no official position as maestro di cappella and was therefore under no obligation to provide music for an institution; rather, he was employed as organist in a number of the Roman churches, among them the Vatican basilica of St Peter’s....