'In his wide-ranging and masterful study, Owen Rees examines Victoria's Requiem as both text and icon. He does so with a scholar's nose for forensic minutiae, an analyst's eye for the telling detail, and a choral director's ear for precision and rigour. His study is a model of its kind … Without a doubt, Rees's study of Victoria's Officium defunctorum will help bring us closer to an understanding of this astonishing work as a Requiem for a Habsburg empress and as a Requiem for us.' Michael Noone, Early Music History
Introduction: 'Requiem for an age'?; 1. Chaplain of the Empress; 2. María's exequies in context; 3. Publishing the Officium Defunctorum; 4. Fashioning the Requiem; 5. 'The crowning work of a great genius'; Epilogue: Requiem for our age?