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  • ART::MUSIC
    • 2023-2024 Concerts >
      • The Most Famous Motet
      • The Treasury of Petrus Alamire
      • Ein Kind ist uns geboren!
      • Appear and Inspire
      • The Singing Walls
      • Two Tall Tales
      • The Most Ambitious Project
    • Learning and Exploration >
      • Brombaugh Organ Exploration
      • BachTalks
      • The Choir Loft >
        • The National Anthems by David Lang - Steve Osborn
        • Heinrich Schütz Symphoniae Sacrae I from 1629
    • Tickets
    • Donate today!
  • Who we are and What we do
    • Mission Statement
  • Our Ensembles
    • Sonoma Bach Choir
    • Circa 1600
    • Green Mountain Consort
    • Live Oak Baroque Orchestra
  • Support
    • Donate
    • Sponsor a Singer!
    • Escrip & Amazon Smile
  • Resources
    • Virtual Offerings - Archive >
      • The Choir Loft
      • Virtual BachTalk
      • Adventures in Sightsinging
      • Parliamo Italiano! Language Workshop
      • Madrigal Mondays
      • Chorale Wednesdays
      • Motet Fridays
      • Virtual Recording Projects
      • Virtual Concerts >
        • Live Oak Baroque Orchestra
        • Music for these Distracted Times - Barefoot All-Stars
        • Agave Baroque American Originals
        • Bach's Long Walk to Lübeck - Anne Laver, organ
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Quinque salutationes Domini nostri Jesu Christi by Ludwig Senfl
Have you ever seen 'Best in Show'? What a weird movie! My favorite scene is the Christopher Guest character, Harlan Pepper, as he drives up to Philadelphia in his RV with Hubert the bloodhound, telling about how as a child he used to make his mother mad by naming nuts.

When applied to music, this phenomenon is called a catalog aria or song. The most famous example is probably Leporello's aria recounting the exploits of his employer, Don Giovanni, all across Europe: 'Madamina: Il catalago è questo'. [Note: I am not by any means hereby condoning such behavior, and will remind you that DG does get
 his just desserts in the end.]

Last Monday we had an example of the catalog song in 'Die Narren', which lists many kinds of fools. For our end-of-the-week motet, we're extending the theme, but in keeping with the sacred nature of the motet (at least from the Renaissance on), today's piece is Ludwig Senfl's amazing 'Quinque salutationes Domini nostri Jesu Christi' ('Five greetings to our Lord Jesus Christ').

The 'Quinque salutationes' are small-scaled, intimate, exquisitely loving songs of delight and tenderness. Each begins with the same invocation--'Hail, Lord Jesus Christ, blessed King'--and continues with a series of titles or attributions of Jesus: 'Vision of peace'; 'Word made flesh'; 'Highest love'; 'Perfect truth'; and so on, spinning ever forward in a glowing, joyful, ecstatic stream of words and music.

I'm not dramatizing here--this really is the way I hear the piece. Senfl, as he was wont to do, has created a special world, a once-in-a-lifetime sound specifically for this text. I think it's a sort of miracle--a small one, certainly, but we can use every single one we can find!

The score and text-translation sheet are attached.
The recording file is too large to attach; you can access it at this link.
I hope that you like this wonderful piece, and that it cheers and uplifts you--
Click here to download learning materials
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