On this page The textPlainchant settingAnglican chant settingDixit Dominus, by Orlande de Lassus (1532-1594)Dixit Dominus, by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)Der Herr spracht zu meinem Herren, by Heinrich Schütz (1585-1672)Dixit Dominus, by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)Dixit Dominus, by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)Dixit Dominus, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) The text from the Psalter in The Book of Common Prayer (1928),pointed for singing in Sarum chant Psalm 110. Dixit Dominus1 The LORD said • unto my Lord, * Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine ene•mies thy footstool.2 The LORD shall send the rod of thy power • out of Sion: * be thou ruler, even in the midst a•mong thine…
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Psalm 110.
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Recommended recording: Selected works by Monteverdi
On Trinity 24, our choir sang the Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei from a Mass by Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) published in 1641 (see here for more about the historical significance of Monteverdi’s work). The Messa da Capella a quattro voci is a relatively late work by Monteverdi, and it demonstrates how he was able to write music that sustained the rich polyphonic textures of previous generations of composers (employing the “Stile antico”) even as he pioneered the innovative musical techniques of the early Baroque. This Mass was part of a collection called Selva morale e spirituale, “A moral and spiritual forest.” In the words of conductor Harry Christophers, “It is jam packed…
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Monteverdi, Messa da Capella a quattro voci (1641)
In 1641, late in his career and life, Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) published Selva Morale e Spirituale, a collection of sacred works composed while serving for decades as mastro di cappella at St. Marks Basilica in Venice. It was the largest collection of sacred music he had published since 1610, prior to his arrival in Venice. Within the collection is a setting of the Mass written for four a cappella voices. It is one of three a cappella masses composed by Monteverdi. Our choir has sung the Sanctus/Benedictus and the Agnus Dei from this work, as well as the Agnus Dei from the Mass published posthumously in 1650. My article “Passionate Praise”…
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Passionate praise
by Ken Myers [This article originally appeared in the September/October 2017 issue of Touchstone magazine. 2017 marked the 450th anniversary of the birth of Claudio Monteverdi.] Douglas Adams, best known as the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, once offered a brief catalog of the possible range of musical expression. “Mozart tells us what it’s like to be human,” explained Adams. “Beethoven tells us what it’s like to be Beethoven and Bach tells us what it’s like to be the universe.” Like all caricatures, Adams’s summary contains a valuable insight into something that happened in music history, and in Western culture more generally, between the early eighteenth century…
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Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643)
RECOMMENDED READING Monteverdi’s pivotal place in music history is discussed in the article “Passionate Praise” Anthony Pryor’s brief biography of Monteverdi in at the BBC Music Magazine website Works by Claudio Monteverdi in the All Saints Choir repertoire Adoramus te Christe Agnus Dei (from Messa da Capella a quattro voci, 1650) O bone Jesu Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei (from Messa da Capella a quattro voci, 1641)