Ave verum corpus | |
---|---|
Motet by W. A. Mozart | |
![]() Mozart's autograph of Ave verum corpus motet | |
Key | D major |
Catalogue | K. 618 |
Occasion | Corpus Christi |
Text | Ave verum corpus |
Language | Latin |
Composed | 17 June 1791 : Baden bei Wien |
Vocal | SATB chorus |
Instrumental |
|
Ave verum corpus ("Hail, True Body"), (K. 618), is a motet in D major composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1791. It is a setting of the Latin hymn "Ave verum corpus". Mozart wrote it for Anton Stoll, a friend who was the church musician of St. Stephan in Baden bei Wien. The motet was composed for the feast of Corpus Christi; the autograph is dated 17 June 1791. It is scored for SATB choir, string instruments and organ.
Mozart composed the motet in 1791 in the middle of writing his opera Die Zauberflöte . [1] He wrote it while visiting his wife Constanze, who was pregnant with their sixth child and staying in the spa Baden bei Wien. [1] Mozart set the 14th century Eucharistic hymn in Latin "Ave verum corpus". He wrote the motet for Anton Stoll, a friend of his. [2] Stoll was the musical director of the parish St. Stephan, Baden. [3] The setting was composed to celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi; the autograph is dated 17 June 1791. (The Feast of Corpus Christi falls on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday, and in 1791 was observed on June 23.) The composition is only forty-six bars long and is scored for SATB choir, string instruments, and organ. Mozart's manuscript contains minimal directions, with only a single sotto voce marking at the beginning.
The motet was composed less than six months before Mozart's death. [2] It foreshadows "aspects of the Requiem such as declamatory gesture, textures, and integration of forward- and backward-looking stylistic elements". [4] While the Requiem is a dramatic composition, the motet expresses the Eucharistic thoughts with simple means, suited for the church choir in a small town. [2] [5]
Franz Liszt made transcriptions of Mozart's motet for piano solo [Searle 461a] and for organ [Searle 674d], and also quoted Mozart in his fantasie piece Evocation à la Chapelle Sixtine [Searle 461], in versions for piano, organ, orchestra, and piano duet. [6] Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky incorporates an orchestration of Liszt's transcription in his fourth orchestral suite, Mozartiana, Op. 61, a tribute to Mozart's music. [7]
The beginning of the melody is as follows:
In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margaret Bent, "a piece of music in several parts with words" is as precise a definition of the motet as will serve from the 13th to the late 16th century and beyond. The late 13th-century theorist Johannes de Grocheo believed that the motet was "not to be celebrated in the presence of common people, because they do not notice its subtlety, nor are they delighted in hearing it, but in the presence of the educated and of those who are seeking out subtleties in the arts".
The Requiem in D minor, K. 626, is a Requiem Mass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Mozart composed part of the Requiem in Vienna in late 1791, but it was unfinished at his death on 5 December the same year. A completed version dated 1792 by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had commissioned the piece for a requiem service on 14 February 1792 to commemorate the first anniversary of the death of his wife Anna at the age of 20 on 14 February 1791.
Ave verum corpus is a short Eucharistic chant that has been set to music by many composers. It dates to the 13th century, first recorded in a central Italian Franciscan manuscript. A Reichenau manuscript of the 14th century attributes it to Pope Innocent
John Harris Harbison is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works.
David John Briggs is an English organist and composer.
The Requiem, Op. 9, is a 1947 setting of the Latin Requiem by Maurice Duruflé for a solo baritone, mezzo-soprano, mixed choir, and organ, or orchestra with organ. The thematic material is mostly taken from the Mass for the Dead in Gregorian chant. The Requiem was first published in 1948 by Durand in an organ version.
The Orchestral Suite No. 4, Op. 61, more commonly known as Mozartiana, is an orchestral suite by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, written in 1887 as a tribute to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on the 100th anniversary of that composer's opera Don Giovanni. Because this suite consists of four orchestrations of piano pieces by Mozart, Tchaikovsky did not number this suite with his previous three suites for orchestra. Instead, he considered it a separate work entitled Mozartiana. Nevertheless, it is usually counted as No. 4 of his orchestral suites.
Harald Feller is a German organist, choral conductor and composer teaching at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. He was awarded the 1983 Grand Prix du Disque Liszt.
Frank La Rocca is an American classical music composer.
Arthur William Oldham OBE was an English composer and choirmaster. He founded the Edinburgh Festival Chorus in 1965, the Chorus of the Orchestre de Paris in 1975, and the Concertgebouw Orchestra Chorus in Amsterdam in 1979. He also worked with the Scottish Opera Chorus 1966–74 and directed the London Symphony Chorus 1969–76. For his work with the LSO Chorus, he won three Grammy Awards. He was also a composer, mainly of religious works, but also a ballet and an opera.
Andrew Perkins is a New Zealand composer, choral conductor and teacher. He has had a number of works recorded and performed internationally.
Sancta Maria, mater Dei, K. 273, is an act of Consecration to Blessed Virgin Mary in F major, written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for SATB choir, first and second violins, violas and basso continuo of violoncello, double bass and organ. Mozart entered the work into his catalogue on 9 September 1777 in Salzburg.
Ave Maria, WAB 5, is a setting of the Latin prayer Ave Maria by Anton Bruckner.
The Kyrie in D minor, K. 341/368a, is a sacred composition for choir and large classical orchestra by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is a setting of the Kyrie, the first section of the Mass, using an orchestra of two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets in A, two bassoons, two trumpets in D, four horns, two timpani in D and A, organ, and strings, as well as the chorus. It lasts approximately seven minutes in performance.
The church St. Stephan is a Catholic church in Baden in Lower Austria. The official name is Stadtpfarrkirche St. Stephan. The present building began in Gothic style in the 15th century. It was remodeled Baroque in the 17th century, and an attempt made to restore Gothic features from 1880.
My Christmas is a 2014 album by Plácido Domingo for Sony Classical, featuring also Helene Fischer, The Piano Guys, Plácido Domingo Jr., Czech National Symphony Choir, Czech National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Kohn.
The composition of Mozart's unfinished Requiem, K. 626, his last work, is surrounded by the following events.
Mozart: Grosse Messe c-moll KV 427 is an 86-minute live video album of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Christian vocal works Great Mass in C minor, Ave verum corpus and Exsultate, jubilate, performed by Arleen Auger, Cornelius Hauptmann, Frank Lopardo, Frederica von Stade, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Chorus and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Bernstein. Deutsche Grammophon issued it on VHS video cassette, Laserdisc and DVD, and also released audio cassette and CD versions of its soundtrack.