Peter Philips (c.1560–1628) was an English composer, organist, and Catholic priest whose life was shaped by religious exile. Amidst the Protestant Reformation, he left England in 1582 and found refuge on the continent, first serving as organist at the English College in Rome. He later settled in Brussels, then part of the Spanish Netherlands—a Catholic stronghold under Spanish Habsburg rule—where he became a canon and court musician at the chapel of Archduke Albert VII.

Philips composed Ecce, vicit Leo during this period of artistic and spiritual maturity. The motet sets Revelation 5:5 in jubilant polyphony, celebrating the triumph of the Lion of Judah. Published in his Cantiones Sacrae (1612), it reflects the devotional intensity and expressive counterpoint encouraged by the Counter-Reformation. Brussels offered Philips both religious sanctuary and rich musical patronage, allowing him to cultivate a style that blended English clarity with continental warmth.

This arrangement for recorder orchestra (ATBGb/ATBGb) preserves the motet’s antiphonal texture and rhythmic vitality. Barless notation invites flexible articulation and ensemble listening, affirming the piece’s rhetorical immediacy and spiritual joy. The scoring supports expressive clarity across registers, with lower voices anchoring the harmonic weight and upper voices declaiming the motet’s triumphant message.