The Missa Scala Aretina, so called in reference to Guido Aretinus' scale that appears in the cantus firmus (prominently audible in the Kyrie), caused a major musical controversy between 1715 and 1720, initiated by a pamphlet against Valls by the organist and theatre composer Joaquín Martínez de la Roca.
Pro and anti groups were roughly equal, the famous composer Alessandro Scarlatti had given an opinion, mildly opposed to Valls' ideas.
[1] In the Qui tollis at bar 120 (López-Calo edition) the second soprano enters on an unprepared 9th chord causing a gratuitous semitonal dissonance with a b flat, a, f, d and low g sounding simultaneously on the words miserere nobis.
It is doubtful whether such a chord would have been criticized in England where the dissonant music of Henry Purcell or William Lawes had been admired at court and church.
Like Biber's mass the Credo is highly coloured, with descendit being a descending scale and coelis ascending.
The Crucifixus begins in D-major but sinks a tone to a C-minor tierce de Picardie cadence.
All the vocal music by Valls from Mapa Armónico Prácticoand a few instrumental pieces have been transcribed and are in the public domain.
Examples with particularly interesting use of dissonance include Valls' motets, Domine vim patior, Cor mundum meum and O vos omnes.
More impressive is his three part motet setting of the prayer by Saint Augustine of Hippo O sacramentum pietatis (from the latter's Tractates on the gospel of John).
In this motet Valls uses variations in rhythm, time signatures and dynamics to express the changing mood of the text.
Others works are available from Scalaaretina, the Choral Public Domain Library, Musica de Hispania and the Werner Icking Music Archive.