Peter Philips stands with William Byrd as one of the great religious composers of the Counter Reformation. The music of these two English Catholics is unsurpassed in sophistication and interest. The motets on this recording are taken from the five-part Cantiones Sacrae which were published in Antwerp by Pierre Phalèse in 1612. Philips adopted a wide range of musical devices to illustrate these texts musically, from suave counterpoint to precise word or image painting and homophonic declamation. These are extremely beautiful, emotionally charged settings that are strongly related to Catholic spirituality.