Favorite Latin Lenten and Eastertide Motets?
  • MaryAnn Carr WilsonMaryAnn Carr Wilson
    Posts: 1,738
    What are yours? Regina caeli that you love?
    I'd be especially interested in acapella SSATTB. I know my way around the wonderful cpdl site, and now I'm hoping to hear some of your favorites as choir singers and directors.
    Thanks!
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • shawnk
    Posts: 57
    "O Crux Ave" (SATB) by Victoria is a beautiful Lenten piece. Rather hard to find resources for this, online, but I managed to find a recording. So far I haven't seen it on CPDL, but if you're interested, I can send the music to you privately so that you can see it before deciding whether to purchase somewhere.

    What a blessing that your choir has the resources for 6v! Would love to hear a recording, sometime.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    Lent:

    Super Flumina Babylonis - Palestrina
    Pater Peccavi - Duarte Lobo
    Miserere Mei Deus - Allegri (we do it every Ash Wednesday and Good Friday)

    Easter:

    Surrexit Pastor Bonus - Orlando Lasso - 4th Sunday of Easter "Good Shepherd Sunday"

    Other:

    Christ Lag in Todesbanden - J.S. Bach - not Latin, but a great piece for Easter if you've got all the people who can handle the parts for it. It a lot of hard work to learn it properly the first time my choir did it in 2011. We started learning it before Ash Wednesday! We now do it every year during Easter.
    Thanked by 2Richard Mix canadash
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,192
    "O Crux Ave" (SATB) by Victoria is a beautiful Lenten piece. Rather hard to find resources for this, online, but I managed to find a recording. So far I haven't seen it on CPDL.
    Actually, it IS available at CPDL. "O Crux Ave" is one of the verses of "Vexilla Regis" and, as such, it is found in the Victoria settings by that name. Note that the "more Hispanico" setting refers to the chant only, and the polyphony is the same as the other Victoria setting. The two settings indeed have different polyphony, but one of the two settings under the non-"more Hispanico" has the polyphony of the "more Hispanico". Edit: The listings at CPDL have been fixed to correct the wrong assignment of editions there.
    Thanked by 1shawnk
  • shawnk
    Posts: 57
    Another Lenten favorite of mine-- if you have the right context and the right voices for it-- is "O Crux Benedicta" (SATTB, ~3:00) by Carlo Gesualdo.
    Sheet music
    Recording

    Mmm: all of those ascending and descending runs!
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • shawnk
    Posts: 57
    @CHGiffen, I thought maybe the same thing, but the "O Crux" setting that I saw in that "Vexilla Regis" is a different one than I had hoped, although also SATB.

    I take that back, @CHGiffen-- you were correct: the "O Crux" section in this file (m80) is exactly what I was talking about:
    http://www.uma.es/victoria/pdf/Vexilla_Regis.pdf

    Mea culpa.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,798
    Our congregation has so taken to the post-communion Regina caeli that we may never do a polyphonic setting, but Richefort's is formidable in both senses.

    Easter Sunday Byrd: Christ rising again
    Easter 2 Rheinberger: Bleib bei uns or Gallus: Stetit Jesus
    Easter 3 Phillips: Surgens Jesus
    Callaway: Simon, son of Jonas (year C)
    Easter 4 Virgil Thomson: My shepherd will supply
    Easter 5 Brahms: Geistliches Lied (year A)
    Viadana Exultati justi**
    Easter 6 Tallis: If ye love me (year A)
    Ireland: Greater love hath no man (year B)
    Brahms: Geistliches Lied (year C)
    Ascension Sunday Phillips: Ascendit Deus (what else!)

    But I notice the request was for Latin! Leaving out the German, English and Czech for Lent:
    Ash Wed. Morales: Inter vestibulum a 4
    Lent 2 Maurenzio: Christus Jesus splendor a 4
    Lent 3 A. Scarlatti: Justitiae Dom. a 4
    Lent 5 Allegri: Miserere a 9
    Palm Sunday: Schubert's Palm Blessing antiphons, a 4

    A 6-parter we look forward to is Lassus Timor et tremor, and I wonder if MaryAnn is contemplating the Poulenc motets?
    Thanked by 2canadash M. Jackson Osborn
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    Any of the Gesualdo Tenebrae Responsories, but "Caligaverunt" and "Tenebrae factae sunt" are my favourites.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • JonLaird
    Posts: 245
    Explore pieces from the unfortunately-neglected Cantiones Sacrae of Sweelinck (5vv):
    De profundis
    O Domine Jesu Christe
    Regina Coeli
    Qui vult venire post me
    Videte manus meas
    Viri Galilaei
    Vide homo
    ...And several others.
    Thanked by 3BruceL Heath canadash
  • BruceL
    Posts: 1,072
    Yeah, those Sweelinck motets are great.

    I vote Byrd's Gradualia/Cantiones. We're doing the Miserere and Emendemus as a set this year. If you have good singers and a lot of men, it's a useful way to distribute voices. They will also learn line as well...since you don't really have a choice with those pieces!

    MACW Byrd Haec Dies definitely fits your voicing preference.

    We are also doing Stanford Ye Choirs since I have an excellent assistant organist this year. I like to be sure we have a good mix of polyphony and "sing it" pieces since I have a couple really big voices that are very patient with the Renaissance rep!

    I never get tired of the Bartolucci Crux Fidelis, either. I like the refrain a little quicker on this, but still nice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slBQerLwtMU
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    Thinking about Haec Dies: Healey Willan has a nice setting in the New St. Basil Hymnal, I don't know if it has been republished by the Healey Willan Society or not.
    Thanked by 1canadash
  • Hugh
    Posts: 198
    Byrd's Civitas Sancti (5vv) and the Crecquillon Pater Peccavi I and Pater Peccavi II (8vv) were our non-negotiables when we had the luxury of numbers a few years back.


    Alas we've been down on numbers of late, so can only do 3 and 4 part material.

    So, Super Flumina of Palestrina, (SATB) as others have noted.
    Also the Lassus Miserere (SATB, I think)

    And last Lent we very happily discovered and used the Crecquillon Peccantum Me Quotidie (3vv) and the haunting Penalosa Inter Vestibulum" (4vv). Highly recommended for small choirs.

    Scratchy live recordings of us... probably much better versions on youtube.

    (PDFs of the Penalosa and Crec. Peccantum Me, which aren't on CPDL as yet, AFAIK, on my choir music page near the top.)
    Thanked by 5CHGiffen JulieColl canadash BruceL Aristotle Esguerra
  • Protasius
    Posts: 468
    I like the Regina coeli by Gregor Aichinger (on CPDL iirc). Also Victorias Popule meus for Good Friday is wonderful.
  • MaryAnn Carr WilsonMaryAnn Carr Wilson
    Posts: 1,738
    Bump!
    Good ideas. Why didn't I think of Sweelinck?
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • SamuelDorlaque
    Posts: 318
    Many wonderful suggestions. May I recommend the Palestrina Offertoria a 5 for the Church Year. They are available on CPDL.org. When a choir can sing these, nothing will ever again seem like too great a challenge. Also di Lasso's collection of offertoria. (If I need a motet after the communion using a di Lasso setting is often a good solution.)
    Thanked by 1BruceL
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