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O admirabile commertium

by Cantores Sancti Gregorii

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Adriaen Willaert: O admirabile commertium (Musica Nova 1559)

In 1559 a monumental anthology of motets and madrigals by Adriaen Willaert was printed under the name Musica Nova. The music however was anything but new. Most pieces seem to had been composed already at the beginning of 1540s as musica reservata of sorts. The only manuscript copy of this music was in the possession of one Polissena Pecorina, an expert singer and a friend of Willaert. A contemporary visitor to one of the musical evenings she hosted described them thus: "... you would have been amazed if you had heard the divineness which I witnessed here in Venice. There is here a gentle woman, Polisena Pecorina (consort of a gentleman from my own city) ... At her house I heard one evening a concert of viols and voices at which she played and sang with others. The 'perfect maestro' of the music was Adriano Willaert whose diligent inventions are no longer usual with composers. His music is so well unified, so expressive (dolce) so appropriate (giusta) and it so wonderfully adorns the words, that I confessed not to have known what music was in all my days save for that evening." Young Alfonso d'Este of Ferrara purchased this manuscript at great cost in 1554, had Willaert revise the compositions and the whole collection was printed in 1559 by Gardano.

The motets settings the antiphons for the feast of the Circumcision of Christ - the Octave Day of the Nativity of the Lord - which are part of Willaert's Musica Nova collection stand out as rather singular and peculiar, especially considering the supposed original purpose and context of the collection. The cycle consists of seven motets, five antiphons for the psalms that would be used in both Laudes and Vespers and two magnificat antiphons, for both first and second Vespers. What made these texts so special? Polyphonic settings of office antiphons were far from typical, in Vespers polyphony would mostly be limited to Magnificat and hymnus.
Furthermore, Willaert is far from the only one to have written motets on these texts. E.g. at least 18 other settings of the text O admirabile commercium are known before 1550, including a more well known complete cycle of the first five antiphons by Josquin. Where would this sort of popularity come from?

lyrics

O admirabile commercium!
Creator generis humani,
animatum corpus sumens,
de Virgine nasci dignatus est:
et procedens homo sine semine,
largitus est nobis suam Deitatem.

O wonderful exchange!
The creator of the human race,
taking our flesh upon him,
deigns to be born of a virgin;
and, coming forth without seed of man,
bestows his Divinity upon us.

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released January 13, 2016

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Cantores Sancti Gregorii Netherlands

Professional ensemble specializing in sacred and religious music with a special focus on Gregorian chant and polyphony inspired therewith.

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