O Saving Victim (2025)
  • AdteBeateJoseph3
    Posts: 35
    Pax,
    One of my first compositions of the year. I challenged myself to write almost exclusively on paper & pen with minimal use of an instrument. Only final edits were made on notation software so not everything is 100%, but it has been a great experience writing on paper because you have to think of the text; unlike writing on computer where I always felt like writing an essay with a due date!

    I had the image of Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament in my mind while writing, so it is best used for that moment, but like most Eucharistic texts it could definitely be used for a post-Communion. This piece will be part of a collection of Eucharistic motets in honor of Blessed Carlo Acutis which I will share with the forum. Please keep me in your prayers that I may finish them before Easter. I hope this motet may be of help for your choirs.

    God Bless!
    O Salutaris Hostia.mp3
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    O Salutaris Hostia.pdf
    78K
    Thanked by 6CHGiffen Andrew_Malton M. Jackson Osborn Xopheros Marc Cerisier Richard Mix
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,427
    Excellent!
    I'd like to hear it by the boys and men at Kings!
    It's really deeply moving.
    I'm not at all accusing you of 'borrowing from someone else' (far from it!), but there is a hymn tune, a chorale I believe, whose name I can't recall just now that happens to share the first five or six notes of your motet.
    Thanked by 1AdteBeateJoseph3
  • AdteBeateJoseph3
    Posts: 35
    Praise God! I did think about that since I was going for the Dorian mode :) Sounds like a Bach chorale perhaps
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,240
    Wonderfully crafted!
    For several years now, I, too, have not used an instrument (usually it was a piano) when while composing. It has proved quite liberating as well as inspirational.
    Thanked by 1AdteBeateJoseph3
  • Marc Cerisier
    Posts: 557
    Exceptionally beautiful! Would you consider releasing a score in Latin? I'm not able to use English at my masses. As best as I could see, the English text you used has the same meter.
    Thanked by 1AdteBeateJoseph3
  • AdteBeateJoseph3
    Posts: 35
    Definitely! I will make it available here
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • AdteBeateJoseph3
    Posts: 35
    Latin Version
    O Salutaris Hostia II.pdf
    79K
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen Marc Cerisier
  • Marc Cerisier
    Posts: 557
    Many thanks.
    Thanked by 1AdteBeateJoseph3
  • Xopheros
    Posts: 31
    A wonderful piece, thanks for posting it with bilingual text underlay.

    Maybe the chorales that came M. Jackson Osborn to mind after hearing the incipit were the Genevan psalm tunes for Psalm 5 and Psalm 9? The melody for Psalm 9 was recycled by Ulenberg in his catholic counterpart to the Genevan Psalter for Psalm 117 (Psalm 116 in the Septuaginta numbering used by Ulenberg).
    005_incipit.png
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    009_incipit.png
    396 x 62 - 912B
    Thanked by 1AdteBeateJoseph3
  • trentonjconn
    Posts: 679
    Nun lobet Gott im hohen Thron is one of my all-time favorite hymns.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen Xopheros
  • Xopheros
    Posts: 31
    @trentonjconn Yes, "Nun lobet Gott im hohen Thron" is one of my favorites, too. If you like it, you might also have use for this polyphonic two part setting.

    Interestingly, Ulenberg used a different melody in the first edition of his psalter 1587, and replaced it with the Genevan melody in the 1603 edition.
    Thanked by 1trentonjconn
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,240
    Nun lobet Gott im hohen Thron is also one of my all-time favorite hymns.
    Here is my setting (and also the English version "Sing praise to God in heaven above"), in the most recent revision.
    Giffen-Nun lobet Gott im hohen Thron-rev.pdf
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    Giffen-Sing praise to God in heaven above-rev.pdf
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    Giffen-Nun lobet Gott im hohen Thron-snd-rev.mp3
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    Thanked by 2Xopheros trentonjconn
  • Xopheros
    Posts: 31
    @CHGiffen Your addition of a discantus counter voice is a nice effect. By whom is the English translation? Is it in the public domain or is it necessary to obtain permission for using it?
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,240
    The English translation is found at no. 210 in the Vatican II Hymnal, but it is without attribution. And no attribution was provided to me when I harmonized it for the hymnal.
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