Salve Regina, De la Rue
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,789
    We have been looking at this beautiful piece, but my choir has complained about the edition found on the excellent CPDL. Has anyone got a copy in a more singable format?
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Tom,

    Is the problem that the word "Virgo" is missing from the end of the prayer, or the bar lines or the translation or something which the choir finds unsingable?
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,199
    The missing "Virgo" isn't really a problem, since several of the earlier composers omitted it: Tye, Fayrfax, Cornysh, Browne, Dufay - just to name a few. At least one inserts "semper" after "Virgo" ("O Virgo semper dulcis Maria"). And there are other textual variants.

    We see this also in the treatment of "Ave verum corpus": "O Iesu dulcis, O Iesu pie" - where others omit "Iesu".
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,789
    The lack of bar lines in sensible positions...

    The different texts associated with this Antiphon / prayer are irrelevant to us, the Marian Anthem at the end of Mass is customary not Liturgical.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,199
    There is a published Anne Bank Edition, commercially available.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,367
    I'll fight on this; now, I don't care if you sing the Sarum text or not, though, e.g. the Tye can be worked into the Roman chant just fine, which we did at the 2015 Colloquium. But the antiphon follows the last office in choir, which would be the Mass at this part of the day, until the reforms of the 1950s and early 1960s. It is therefore wise to treat it as more liturgical than anything else, even if Terce is of course not obligatory before the parochial sung Mass and I really like that our pastor does the verse and the collect.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen tomjaw
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,815
    I once simply explained Mensurstriche to my choir, noting that it's a fairly widespread convention since the 1920's in Renaissance music editions. If anyone had complained further I would have assigned them to blacken white notes and pencil-in tied ones, but my singers are pretty game to try new things.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Matthew,
    I'll fight on this

    With whom are you picking a fight?
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,367
    I'm just being hyperbolic with respect to tomjaw's answer, since the Marian antiphon with its verse and collect is, if not strictly liturgical in a parochial setting, then very important (but as I said, I'm not gonna complain if someone wants to use a polyphonic setting or even the chant from a usage that didn't yet include the "right" words).
    Thanked by 2Chris Garton-Zavesky tomjaw
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,199
    To expand upon those composers who have used a text other than the Tridentine text (and these don't all use a specifically Sarum text, either), mostly with the omission of "Virgo" or using "Virgo semper" -- here is a list of more of these composers whose non-Tridentine settings are at CPDL:

    Trent codices codex 88
    Trent codices codex 91
    Beausseron
    Castilleja
    Conseil
    Davy
    Genet
    Gombert
    Lambe
    Misonne
    Nucius
    Praetorius
    Richafort
    Sermisy
    Sutton
    Upton
    Vaet
    Thanked by 2tomjaw Chris Garton-Zavesky
  • CGM
    Posts: 705
    LaRue scholar William Kempster has prepared performing editions of the complete works of LaRue, available on a per-score basis at a nominal charge — so a clean score more to your liking is probably available there. Apparently LaRue composed six settings of the Salve Regina, and Dr. Kempster has helpfully provided audio files of all the pieces; the piece in question is Salve Regina VI. Judging from the audio, the score is pitched a whole-step lower than the Hetland edition on CPDL, so if you really like that key for your singers, you might ask the good Dr. to raise the score a whole-step for you. It appears that his scores were made with Sibelius, so transposition should be a snap.
    Thanked by 3ServiamScores tomjaw Jeffrey Quick
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