Assumption(s) -
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    In thinking about a certain event in my life, which we all will have to experience en route from this life to the next, I was certain that I would want one of my favourite psalm texts to be used as an anthem at this liturgical event if there were a suitable setting of it. Behold, I found it as a motet for five voices amongst Byrd's Gradualia. The text is Psalm 27.4, Unam petii ad Domino, or 'One thing have I desired of the Lord, which I will require, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the fair beauty of the Lord, and to visit his temple'. This would be preceded by the Palmer-Burgess adaptation of the proper Gregorian offertory antiphon. Some questions, though, are attendant upon this discovery. In Byrd's Gradualia this motet is included amongst the propers for the Assumption of the BVM, which seemed rather odd to me; nor does it appear in any of the Assumption propers that I have in my library. Can anyone shed some light on this matter? Why is this motet where it is in Byrd's Gradualia, of which I have the complete edition? None of the items in Byrd's work for this feast (except for the gradual) appear in any sets of Assumption propers that I know of.
    Unam petii ad Domino.docx
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  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    DIGRESSION ALERT! Jackson, don't read any further!

    Tho' I do give a rip about having the REQUIEM sung, I really don't have a say as I "won't be in the building." Howevver, I will insist that the "Dies irae" be chanted, because I will need those prayers!

    ALERT OVER AND OUT.
  • G
    Posts: 1,400
    Howevver, I will insist that the "Dies irae" be chanted, because I will need those prayers!
    I already got the homilist lined up for mine...
    Just because he's thirty some years older than I doesn't mean he can't make it, and he is the ONLY priest I have ever heard mention the word "purgatory" at a funeral.

    (Save the Liturgy, save the World)
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Jackson, my understanding is that the final three motets of the Gradualia I are additions, outside the rubrics; hence, although these motets follow the section on the Assumption, they are not (and were not) assigned to the Assumption. Kerman, in "The Masses and Motets of William Byrd, Vol. I" makes this quite clear, calling the last two (Unam petii ad Dominum and Plorans plorabit) "non-liturgical 'political motets' in the oldest tradition."

    Here's the online reference.
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    Many thanks. I suspected as much. Incidentally, I am a great fan of Kerman's. I just now happen to be re-reading his Write All These Down, a compilation of his lectures, one of which is about Byrd, et al. This is a fascinating book by an admirable mind. His writing is almost as pure intellect as is Stravinsky's.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
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