Source title | Comiença[n] otras seys diferencias de sacris solemnis por el sesto tono. En la cuarta en el tercer traste esta la claue de fefaut. En la segu[n]da en el primer traste esta la claue de cesolfaut. |
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Title in contents | Primer contrapunto de sacris solemnis a quatro. |
Text incipit | Sacris solemniis |
Category cantus firmus
Genre chant
Fantasia type
Mode 6
Voices 4
Length (compases) 288
Tuning E
Courses 6
Final VI/3
Highest I/10
Lowest VI/1
Difficulty not specified
Tempo variable
Language
Vocal notation
Libro 4. Variations using the hymn as a cantus firmus. O sacriis solemnis is one of five hymns by St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) in honor of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, composed for the Feast of Corpus Christi. There is no doubt that the work is intended as a set of cantus firmus variations above all. There is no text underlaid in the tablature. Possibly because the hymn melody was so well known, Narváez did not go to the trouble of printing the cantus firmus in red ciphers. Carrasco2011-1, 42 gives the hymn meolody, a variation by variation analysis (44-52) and a transcription (54-58) that is the best available.
REPRINT / COPY
Variation 3 (only) was copied as “Tercero contrapunto” in Osborne Lute MS. (Yale Univ., Beinecke Lib., Music Ms. 13), fol. 3v (nº. 5)
Sacris solemniis
iuncta sint gaudia,
et ex praecordiis
sonent praeconia;
recedant vetera,
nova sint omnia,
corda, voces, et opera.
(The first of 6 strophes)
At this our solemn feast
let holy joys abound,
and from the inmost breast
let songs of praise resound;
let ancient rites depart,
and all be new around,
in every act, and voice, and heart.