Christe Adoramus Te

Claudio Monteverdi

This motet falls into several short sections and is for five-part SSATB choir with obbligato cornett. The opening is declamatory and arresting with the upper soprano part taking the lead. There follows a highly chromatic passage, beginning with the lower voices and rising through the texture of the choir. The harmony here is very advanced for its time and must have sounded quite bizarre to seventeenth-century Venetian ears; it is akin to the more dramatic music which Monteverdi uses in his later madrigals in an attempt to set the texts as vividly as possible. The entire passage, once completed, is then repeated. The final supplicatory passage reworks the musical style of the opening.

Christe adoramus te, Christe et benedicimus tibi,
Quia per sanctam crucem tuamredemisti mundum.
Domine, miserere nobis.

Christ we adore Thee, and we bless Thee.
Who, through Thy holy cross, redeems the world.
Lord, have mercy on us.

Cantate Domino

Claudio Monteverdi

This is a setting of words based on text drawn from the Psalms. It begins in quick triple time – like a dance – and is for six-part SSATTB choir. It demonstrates three entirely different musical textures: the opening section is entirely homophonic (chordal); the middle section has a more polyphonic texture with pairs of voices imitating each other over a slow moving bass line, and the final section has imitative counterpoint throughout all six voices.

Cantate Domino canticum novum,
cantate et benedicite nomine eius.
Quia mirabilia fecit
cantate et exultate et psallite in cythara et voce psalmi quia mirabilia fecit.

O sing unto the Lord a new song
Sing unto Him and bless His holy name.
He has made miracles.
Sing and exult and praise, and play the harp in songs and psalms of gladness.

Toccata Arpeggiata

Giovanni Kapsberger

This toccata for theorbo was published in Venice in 1611, six years after Kapsperger had left Venice for Rome. It is from Libro primo d’intavolatura di chirarrone.