Just over twenty years ago, Oxford University Press published a collection of new Latin motets – maybe a bit of a niche market, but one which gave many composers the opportunity to respond to the long tradition of sacred music in Latin in their own contemporary musical style – composers like Kerry Andrew, Michael Finnissy, Tarik O’Regan, Francis Pott, Gabriel Jackson, as well as Bob Chilcott and John Rutter. And many more, including me!
The collection (which is still in print, and the pieces are also available separately as digital downloads) is called ‘Cantica Nova’. All the Latin texts are religious, ranging from verses from the Bible to hymns from the Middle Ages and later, and I chose Ave maris stella (Hail, star of the sea) an 8th-9th century hymn to the Virgin Mary.
In my setting I took the opening verse:
Ave maris stella, Dei mater alma,
atque semper virgo, felix caeli porta.
and made this into a chorus, which is repeated four times, each time with a fuller texture. Between this the remaining three verses appear, in a predominantly chordal texture, and again building to a climax for the last verse. Finally the music subsides for an extra statement of the opening phrase. So, for me, that gave the music a structure, and, perhaps, an air of ‘meditative celebration’ which would have shape and interest even though the words might not be readily understood.
I’m writing about this piece now because recently I heard a fine performance of it by the Erasmus Chamber Choir, directed by Julian Merson, in a programme which placed a number of new settings of Marian texts alongside the Missa Sancta et Immaculata of the sixteenth-century Spanish composer Francisco Guerro.
Here’s a link to my Ave Maris Stella (with scrolling score)
A link to the entire concert may become available in the future.
The score is obtainable from www.oup.com/sheetmusic and the text is below:
Ave maris stella, Dei mater alma,
atque semper virgo, felix caeli porta.
Solve vincla reis, profer lumen caecis,
mala nostra pelle, bona cuncta posce.
Vitam praesta puram, iter para tutum,
ut videntes Jesum, semper collaetemur.
Sit laus Deo Patri, summo Christo decus,
Spiritui Sancto, tribus honor unos.
English translation:
Hail, star of the sea, kindly mother of God
and ever virgin, blessed gate of the sky.
Undo the chains of the guilty, bring light to the blind,
drive away our ills, ask for all good things.
Bestow a pure life upon us, prepare a safe way,
that, beholding Jesus, we may alway rejoice.
Praise be to God the Father, glory to Christ on high,
to the Holy Spirit, one honour to the three.