Josquin: Praeter rerum seriem - Tallis Scholars

Josquin des Prés: Praeter rerum seriem

The Tallis Scholars
Peter Phillips

Score: www.tomasluisdevictoria.org
Performed a tone above written pitch.

This 6 voice motet is one of Josquin's most celebrated composition. It is based on the Sequence of the Midnight Mass at Christmas before the Tridentine reform, which focuses on the Virgin Mary.
The plainchant melody is very simple, consisting of many repetitions, so the harmonic changes are slow and Josquin uses short motifs (emphasizing the harmonic steps of the underlying harmony) over an almost stationary base, a favourite procedure of his which he uses very effectively in several of his compositions.
The melody has the structure AABBCC, the sections AA, BB and CC forming a textual unit, each section has a rhytmic structure of 7+7+4 syllables.
Josquin uses this plainchant melody in the Soprano and the Tenor (and in the second and third part occasionally in the first Alto and the Bass), first in long note values, but then in ever shorter note values. Thus the music gradually gets faster till the final exclamation: Mater, ave! where it reverts to the slow tempo of the beginning of the piece.

The popularity of this piece is shown by the fact that it was used as a model for a Mass composition by Cipriano de Rore, Georges de la Hèle, and it even served as a base for a Magnificat by Orlandus Lassus.

Josquin: Praeter rerum seriem - Gabrieli Consort, Paul McCreesh:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONNQJXqCgGY

Cipriano de Rore: Missa Praeter rerum seriem - Tallis Scholars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oHQEYqItNM&list=PL2k8ekJXk4nUc4gdQfJZSG_EH24KSZLVk

Cipriano de Rore: Missa Praeter rerum seriem - Gabrieli Consort, Paul McCreesh:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfqM7zS7A9g&list=PL2k8ekJXk4nWyCe8m019YQBOSu3lp_KbC

Lassus: Magnificat Praeter rerum seriem - De Labyrintho:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCoUqc0PQMs

Praeter rerum seriem
parit deum hominem
virgo mater.
Nec vir tangit virginem
nec prolis originem
novit pater.

Virtus sancti spiritus
opus illud coelitus
operatur.
Initus et exitus
partus tui penitus
quis scrutatur?

Dei providentia
quae disponit omnia
tam suave.
Tua puerperia
transfer in mysteria.
Mater ave.
Beyond the order of this world,
the Virgin Mother bore God in human form.
She was untouched by man,
nor did the father know the child's origin.

That work was achieved from heaven
by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Who can fathom the profundity
or your labour's beginning and its end?

God's providence,
which has ordered everything
to such perfection.

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