Choral Public Domain Library

As Christmas is comming, our choir does want to include some Palestrina's christmas works. I have "Hodie Cristus natus est" (from www.cipoo.net) and the score is TTBB. Some Rennasaince's works can commonly performed in a variety of combinations, so, I want to know if this motete can be performed (or is used to be performed) SATB. The general sound in the form TTBB is wonderful for the voice's crossings and the close harmony, but I'm not so sure about SATB with the harmony more open.

So, any comments? Any sugestions?
I'll appreciate them a lot.

Best regards
Luis

Hi Luis,

I think the Brian Marble SATB edition (transposed up a perfect fourth) from the cipoo.net version is quite satisfactory for performance and keeps the flavor of the voicings of the TTBB edition you mentioned.

chuck giffen

Dear Mr. Giffen:
Thank you, very much, for your suggestion. I've downloaded the score you say and I'm going to study it properly.

Best regards,
Luis

Need clarity on interpretation. In Brian Marble's SATB score, The time changes from 3/2 to 3/1 at three bars 8, 19 & 63. While singing these bars, should we change the note value as written(semi-breve becomes 1 beat, minim half and so on) or simply continue as 3/2.

Thanks.

My understanding here is that the minim (half-note) tactus remains constant throughout. I think the 3/1 bars (in place of two 3/2 bars) are there to point out instances of hemiola (three semibreves in the space of six beats) texture.

Many thanks Chuck, my understanding is, if minim remains constant, the value of semi-breve should not change (time signature can be 6/2 or cadenza, but it should not be 3/1 ) and can't feel hemiola from midi file.

Thanks.

It seems to me that the metrical signs in this edition are complete nonsense, but to be sure, it were necessary to have a look at a facsimile. In any case I have never seen a metrical sign "4/2" in 16th century music, and "3/2" in the 16th century generally does not mean "three half notes" but "three in the time of two" (aka "sesquialtera"), so I guess these symbols are inventions by the editor.

One reasonable hypothesis that could explain these strange metrical signs is, that the typesetting software used by the editor is bar oriented and requires not only bar lines, but also a "metrum" specified for each bar. If this hypothesis is correct, the "3/1" does not mean a speedup by a factor two (as would be a straightforward application of "three in the time of two" followed by "tree in the time of one") but is just a crutch to work around the typestting software's inability to draw more notes in a bar than the "metrum" allows.

Cdalitz wrote:It seems to me that the metrical signs in this edition are complete nonsense....so I guess these symbols are inventions by the editor.

I am as happy as the next man to indulge in wilful obscurantism, but I cannot find it within me to rubbish Mr Marble's edition on the grounds of anachronistic content. Consider the medium: we don't insist on the dissemination of music printed on hand-laid paper by small-pox sufferers compayning of yr. auntient maladie, so why not welcome more recent (=evolved/improved) tools to commune with the modern quirister. And this score does IM'O.