Looking for a TTBB setting of Sicut Cervus
  • rvgregerson
    Posts: 10
    Does anyone know of a TTBB setting of Sicut Cervus out there? I have a men's quartet that would like to sing the piece, but haven't had any luck on Choral Wiki.

    Thanks!
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,086
    There's a Gounod TTBB (Schirmer 1910), a TTBB with organ by Harvey Gaul as filtered through Nicola Montani, published by Boston Music in 1905, Erzsébet Szonyi for 3 men (Leduc 1980), and a Nancy Telfer "ausgabe für Frauenchor", which implies there could be an "ausgabe für Männerchor" (or maybe you can sing it down)

    It's not such a frequently-set text. Lincoln gives NO settings in anthologies during the 16th c. the MOTET database gives 4 (Palestrina, da Monte. Rore? and anon.). There's a 2 voice setting in Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Mus. Ms. 260. (ST as it stands, but would work down a sixth; modern ed, in RRMR v. 16-17, p. 93. There's a setting by de Brito in Portugaliae musica, but we don't have it here so I can't tell you the voicing. Ditto the settings by Alonso Xuárez, ( d. 1696.), FX Witt, J. Vaet,

    How high is your T I, how low your B II? I assume this is p. 753 of the LU? Not making any promises, you understand...
  • Abbot Jonathan CoelAbbot Jonathan Coel
    Posts: 167
    I assume you mean the one by Palestrina. Your best bet is the one on Choral Wiki in F. Why? Because your First Tenor should be able to sing in the high part of his head voice (gently) and also to switch over into falsetto.

    http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/images/8/8f/Pal-sicer.pdf
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,215
    Another vote for that version: we used it on Sunday.
  • dvalerio
    Posts: 341
    This Tract is part of some mediaeval Masses for the Dead, since, before the Missal of Trent (which prescribes Tract Absolve Domine instead), it was used in many regions for that occasions. Among such compositions, which you can count on your fingers, there is a SA setting by Ockeghem online here (which might be sung an octave below), but it includes the first verse only. Actually if you're satisfied with the first verse only you have a TB version thereof by Antoine Févin here (verse 2 is for SAB and verse 3 for SATB, though).
  • rvgregerson
    Posts: 10
    Sorry, what I meant to say is that I am looking for a TTBB arrangement of Palestrina's "Sicut Cervus."

    We are looking right now at doing the ATTB version in F available on CPDL to which Abbot Coel made reference. Our first tenor is able to sing C above middle C, but the issue is just volume when he's in falsetto (which will be most of the piece). I was hoping there might be an actual TTBB arrangement out there.
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,086
    OK, then "the" Sicut Cervus. I didn't even consider that as the piece is in low clefs already. I suspect one would have to do quite a bit of register surgery to make that work TTBB.
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    rvg,
    I'm pretty sure that a revoicing wouldn't work. I spoke with Joseph Jennings, director of Chanticleer, as he was presenting the Palestrina (in both pars) at an ACDA seminar, about whether he'd ever encountered a TTBB. Nope.
    For renaissance polyphony, each line carries so much "romance" in the affect sense, you can reduce any voice, or revoice to 3 part. It's essentially "perfect." I'd stay with the F. YMMV.
  • rvgregerson
    Posts: 10
    Thanks for all the help on this.

    Does anyone have any thoughts on whether it would work to, taking the key of F arrangement, have the baritone sing the alto line down an octave and then T1, T2, and Bass on the other parts?
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,086
    It all depends what you mean by "work". I assume you're talking about the original cantus line. When all the voices are in, it's not too bad actually; spacing a little close, but not bad counterpoint. It's the entrances that mess you up. Every time the top forms a 5th with the lowest sounding voice, it becomes an unprepared and unresolved 4th in the transposition. Now, will Joe Pewsitter be bothered by this? Maybe subtly, but probably not. Would I do it? No, but I'm a purist early music snob. My suggesting, since y'all have your hearts set on doing this, is to try it out and see how you like it. If there's a notation file of this somewhere, you could do it with the press of a button, but if your guys are readers, they could read it down and make the call themselves.
  • rich_enough
    Posts: 1,048
    (see the next entry)
  • rich_enough
    Posts: 1,048
    Sicut Cervus arranged for TTBB.
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    Tenors singing high G's and basses singing low E's and D's .... beware!
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