Hans Leo Hassler studied in Venice with Andrea Gabrieli, and was a musician for the Fugger family in Augsburg.

[1] He composed Dixit Maria as a motet for choir a cappella, setting a verse from Luke's narration of the annunciation in Latin, specifically Mary's consent to the announcement that she would bear a son.

The B section, repeated with a slightly modified ending, sets Mary's words, beginning in homophony.

[1][5] Few words are accented by melismas, such as "angelum" and "fiat" (may it happen), which summarizes Mary's consent to the incarnation.

[5] Dixit Maria was recorded at the Mainz Cathedral in 2014, together with the mass based on it and other music by Hassler, by the Mainzer Domchor, conducted by Karsten Storck [de].