Summary: Lucie Skeaping finds out how the Marian hymn "Salve Regina" fascinated European composers throughout the Renaissance era. The original chant is itself an exquisitely beautiful melody and it inspired several generations of composers to write soaring polyphonic settings around it, including Guerrero, Ockeghem, Victoria and Lassus. Lucie also talks to Dr Owen Rees, Reader in Music at Oxford University, about how the chant became popular, its liturgical significance and its musical legacy.
