Sweelinck was the last and most of import composer of the musical epoch of the Netherlanders and one of the most celebrated organists and instructors of his clip. None of his vocal plants were set in his native linguistic communication -they were largely in French- and none of his sacred vocals were written for public worship services but instead for private assemblages. Chantez a Dieu is a scene of Psalm 96 as presented in the Gallic Metric Psalter of Clement Marot and Theodore de Beze, subsequently to be known as the Genevan Psalter. In this Psalter the Psalms are versified and assigned to a tune built from the church modes ; Psalm 96 being assigned to a tune built in the Dorian manner. Sweelinck sets his polyphonic version in the manner of the “ cantus firmus Psalm, ” where the quoted tune is dispersed among different voices and interrupted by interludes that reference the original tune in rhythmic and melodious derivations. Chantez a Dieu was published in Sweelinck ‘s Livre quatriesme et conclusionnal diethylstilbestrols pseaumes de David in 1621, reasoning therefore his scene of all the Psalms shortly before his decease. Sweelinck ‘s polyphonic scene of the complete Psalter is considered a memorial of Netherlandish music and unequalled in the sacred polyphonic music of its clip.
Palestrina stands in music history as one of the looming composers of the sixteenth century and a really fecund composer of church music. The command and balance of his polyphonic manner helped accommodate the functional and aesthetic purposes of Catholic church music of the post-Tridentine epoch ( after the Council of Trent ) , gaining him the fabulous position of “ Jesus of church music. ” Sicut Cervus is found in Palestrina ‘s 2nd book of motets for four voices, Moctetorum liber secundus ( 1584 ) . Both the first and 2nd books of motets for four voices depict the equilibrium in composing that has been seen as the trademark of Palestrina ‘s polyphonic music: consecutive melodic sections carefully crafted to make a well-balanced melodious gesture, even in interior voices, and a control of disagreement that creates a texture of great pureness and consistence of plangency. Sicut Cervus is a good illustration of such polyphonic music. Palestrina crafts the motet in a manner in which the imitative lines are about indistinguishable to each other and with melodious entrywaies on either the first or 5th graduated table grades making a really balanced and unfastened plangency. Word picture is achieved with melismatic tallies on the word “ aquarum ” connoting the motion of the H2O, syncopated motion and entrywaies at the 4th and 6th graduated table grades at “ desiderat ” connoting the dramatic desire, and syncopated melismas in the first and 5th graduated table grades to stress the word God at “ Deus. ”
The Silver Swan ( 1612 )
Orlando Gibbons ( 1583-1625 )
Edward gibbons was one of the taking English composers of the early seventeenth century and a celebrated keyboard ace. His repute as a composer rests mostly on his sacred plants, which circulated widely and are still a portion of the English sacred music repertory. The Silver Swan and about all of his secular end product are contained in his First Set of Madrigals and Motets ( 1612 ) , work that demonstrates Gibbons ‘ affinity to the earlier tradition of the partsong and consort vocal. In The Silver Swan, Gibbons presents the ancient fable of the swan, who lives in silence all its life but interruptions into beautiful singing minutes before its decease. Word picture is achieved by the usage of polyphonic music, adding imitative lines to the initial homophonic construction and multiplying the returns of the lines as decease attacks. The imitative lines disappear at the meter of “ Leaning her chest against the reedy shore ” where a raised 4th and a lowered 7th create a affecting harmoniousness resembling the decease of the swan and go forth a largely homophonic construction with one typical line, reminiscent of the swan, melting into the concluding meter.
Il bianco vitamin E dolce cigno ( 1593 )
Jacques Arcadelt ( 1507-1568 )
The erotism of the verse form becomes apparent as the lyrist contrasts his ain decease to that of the fabulous swan: while the swan literally dies, the poet suffers a figuratively sort of decease, one that fills him with desire and would really volitionally digest thousandfold a twenty-four hours! The piece is largely homophonic and therefore lends itself for text picture in assorted ways. A lowered 7th adds poignance to the weeping at “ ed Io piangendo, ” a sudden short polyphonic subdivision with a fleeting declaration to the delusory pigments the cloud nine at “ io Moro beato ” and, after another homophonic session, a sudden effusion of close imitative polyphonic music that actively layers tunes on top of each other creates the dying exhilaration and familiarity of the “ day-to-day thousand deceases. ” Il bianco e dolce cigno was published in Arcadelt ‘s Il primo libro di madrigali ( 1539 ) . Though he excelled in other genres and besides published four more aggregations of madrigals, Il primo libro di madrigali became his most good known work and was really widely disseminated. Paintings of the clip depict instrumentalists playing Arcadelt ‘s composings, portraying therefore the acquired celebrity of the composer.
Cantique de Jean Racine ( 1865 )
Gabriel Faure ( 1845-1924 )
Faure ‘s Cantique is a paraphrasis of the Tuesday matins hymn Consors paternis luminis, traditionally ascribed to St. Ambrose, written by the seventeenth century poet and dramatist Jean Racine. Published in Nicolas Letorneux ‘s Breviaire Romain en Latin et francais ( 1688 ) , the verse form was shortly condemned as heretic and banned from liturgical pattern due to its Jancenistic inclinations ( differing theological motion ) . The prohibition was later removed but the verse form was ne’er included in the Roman Breviary. Faure set the verse form to music in 1865 and it earned him the first award in composing during his last twelvemonth as pupil at the Ecole Niedermeyer. Though a really immature work, Faure ‘s Cantique de Jean Racine does reflect the manner tendencies that the composer would subsequently follow, paying really particular attending to harmoniousness and plangency for expressive intents. From the initial key of Db major Faure travels to the mediant key of degree Fahrenheits minor when picturing the invocation of the penitent, foregrounding the phrase “ divine Jesus ” in its fleeting analogue major key of Ab, returning instantly to f minor to complete the tormented request. Back in the original cardinal Faure places the petition of God ‘s grace in the key of Ab, now functioning as dominant, and moves to the parallel minor key of b-flat minor when picturing snake pit and a languishing psyche. At the terminal of the work Faure returns to the original Db that modulates to its dominant Ab when citing God, accomplishing therefore the undermentioned harmonic associations throughout the work: Db for the suppliant people, f and b-flat child for anguish and snake pit, and the dominant Ab as Godhead mentions.
O sacrum convivium ( 1937 )
Olivier Messiaen
Messiaen ‘s compositional manner reflects the modernism of his clip and its quest to go from traditional Western harmoniousness: looking back into the Greek manners, inventing his ain manners of limited heterotaxy, and finally integrating his ornithology research into his plants utilizing his written texts of bird vocals into his ain composings. Attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas, the Latin text of O sacrum convivium was included in the ancient Holy Eucharist of the Liber Usualis as a Second Vespers antiphon for the Feast of Corpus Christi picturing the admiration of the sacrament of the Eucharist ( Holy Communion ) . Harmonizing to the philosophy of transubstantiation, the given vino and staff of life are transformed into the actual blood and organic structure of Christ. In his scene of O sacrum convivium, Messiaen constructs the haunting, cryptic ambiance of this transubstantiation inventing a really unfastened organum-like harmonisation for the lower three voices in the key of F # and going really chromatically through the keies of the dominant, the supertonic, the sub-dominant and the tonic, making therefore an eerie, grave consequence for the curious event. Messiaen adds poignance and enigma by making a tune reminiscent of early chant and borrowed from from foreign keys, chiefly the parallel child, and puting it in the top voice ; juxtaposing it therefore against the organum-like construction and colliding against its harmoniousnesss.
Spaseniye sodelal ( 1912 )
Pavel Chesnokov ( 1877-1944 )
Composed in 1912, Chesnokov ‘s Spaseniye is one of the last sacred plants of the composer. After the Russian Revolution of 1917 Chesnokov was forced to turn to the composing of secular music: under the new Communist regulation creative persons were prohibited to bring forth any sort of sacred art. In 1933 the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, whose last precentor had been Chesnokov, was demolished to build a authorities edifice for the Soviet government ; after this action Chesnokov stopped composing music wholly. Spaseniye is a scene of Psalm 74:12 based on a Kievan chant and composed as a Friday Communion anthem of the Russian Orthodox Church Holy Eucharist. Chesnokov ‘s scene of the Kievan chant is harmonized in the keies of D major and the parallel key of B child. The openness of the harmonic construction derives from the heavy use of fifths and octaves, crossing a scope from the low B in the bass line to the high Angstrom in the soprano line, constructed in a really homophonic texture that highlights the melodious content and the harmonic consequence of the unfastened chords.
O schone Nacht ( 1877 )
Johannes Brahms ( 1833-1897 )
One of the most outstanding composers of the Romantic epoch, Johannes Brahms excelled in several of the traditional genres. In add-on to his great parts in the instrumental signifiers, Brahms besides produced a rich repertory of choral music and is best known in this genre for his Ein deutsches Requiem and his motets. O schone Nacht ( 1877 ) is found in a digest of fours for vocalists and piano, Brahms ‘s Vier Quartette fur vier Singstimmen und Klavier, Opus 62 ( 1884 ) . In O schone Nacht, the poet Georg Friederich Daumer draws upon elements from nature to picture a lovely dark, full of the urgency of immature love affair, and absolutely suited for a passionate fulfilment. Brahms music reflects this atmosphere making a syncopated beat that arpeggiates harmoniousnesss in the upbeats, making therefore the consequence of urgency and anxiousness, ironically contrasting the calm description of the lovely dark. Brahms ‘ affinity for word picture is reflected in his consummate musical word picture of the erotism of the text. When the Luscinia megarhynchos is referenced the rhythmic velocity additions and the tune takes more aroused leaps resembling the mighty vocalizing of the bird, the exhilaration finds rhythmic and harmonic release at the terminal of the phrase through six driven harmoniousnesss. The really following mention is that of the young person pulling close to his beloved, Brahms sets the imagination by holding the male voices sing their line and adding the female voices imitatively, layering the female sound on top of the male and therefore making a twirling consequence for the two sounds that is released at the word gently, word that is decidedly repeated in double metre pulsations and is harmonically fulfilled at the concluding exclaiming of the lovely dark. The concluding lovely dark is now fulfilled as the upbeat pulsation has been decreased by prolonging the same notes, as opposed to the former arpeggiated signifier, and as a melodious concomitant in the bass line soothes and alleviates this concluding release into composure.