Post by Slinger on Jan 2, 2016 12:34:04 GMT
From now until Jan 4th I'm going to post 12 Christmas themed pieces of music with a little bit of info about each. Rest assured I had to look 99% of it up, so I'm not trying to look clever, 
I just think it's nicer to have a bit of background sometimes. The 12 pieces are in no particular order, some famous and some not so famous, so hopefully you'll find a few you've never heard before as well as some old favourites.
#10 - VICTORIA: O MAGNUM MYSTERIUM
The motet O magnum mysterium (published in 1572) has been a favourite of choirs ever since the revival of Victoria’s music eighty years ago. Although the original publication entitles it In Circuncisione Domini, its text is taken from a responsory of Christmas Matins and its use has always been as a Christmas motet. One of Victoria’s most endearing creations, it unfolds serenely, richly warm when it expresses the wonder that even the animals behold the Infant in the manger. Then a wonderful hush as Victoria musically caresses ‘O beata Virgo’. The final ‘Alleluia’ dances in triple time and then, with a welter of running notes, comes grandly to a close. The work is set for four-part choir (SATB).
This fine work became the basis for a Mass (also for four-part choir) published by Victoria twenty years later, in 1592. It uses all the motives of the motet except for the wonderful brief moment of the ‘O beata Virgo’ section. Victoria, it seems, omitted this from the material for the Mass because it was suitable only for quotation, not development. Similarly he omitted the opening phrase of ‘O quam gloriosum’ in his famous Mass on that motet.
In the Missa O magnum mysterium Victoria swings into triple time briefly just once in the Gloria, fleetingly three times in the Credo, and then to great effect in the Hosanna which follows both Sanctus and Benedictus. He varies his four-part vocal texture just twice. The Benedictus is for three voices (the bass is silent), and in the single setting of Agnus Dei he divides the trebles and makes them sing in canon at the unison. This five-part ending is customarily repeated to accommodate the words ‘dona nobis pacem’.
I just think it's nicer to have a bit of background sometimes. The 12 pieces are in no particular order, some famous and some not so famous, so hopefully you'll find a few you've never heard before as well as some old favourites.#10 - VICTORIA: O MAGNUM MYSTERIUM
The motet O magnum mysterium (published in 1572) has been a favourite of choirs ever since the revival of Victoria’s music eighty years ago. Although the original publication entitles it In Circuncisione Domini, its text is taken from a responsory of Christmas Matins and its use has always been as a Christmas motet. One of Victoria’s most endearing creations, it unfolds serenely, richly warm when it expresses the wonder that even the animals behold the Infant in the manger. Then a wonderful hush as Victoria musically caresses ‘O beata Virgo’. The final ‘Alleluia’ dances in triple time and then, with a welter of running notes, comes grandly to a close. The work is set for four-part choir (SATB).
This fine work became the basis for a Mass (also for four-part choir) published by Victoria twenty years later, in 1592. It uses all the motives of the motet except for the wonderful brief moment of the ‘O beata Virgo’ section. Victoria, it seems, omitted this from the material for the Mass because it was suitable only for quotation, not development. Similarly he omitted the opening phrase of ‘O quam gloriosum’ in his famous Mass on that motet.
In the Missa O magnum mysterium Victoria swings into triple time briefly just once in the Gloria, fleetingly three times in the Credo, and then to great effect in the Hosanna which follows both Sanctus and Benedictus. He varies his four-part vocal texture just twice. The Benedictus is for three voices (the bass is silent), and in the single setting of Agnus Dei he divides the trebles and makes them sing in canon at the unison. This five-part ending is customarily repeated to accommodate the words ‘dona nobis pacem’.
