MISERERE MEI, DEUS

Miserere mei, Deus: translation

   Monumental five-voiced motet of Josquin Desprez probably composed for Holy Week services of 1504 at the chapel of Duke Ercole d’Este of Ferrara. The text is Psalm 51 (Vulgate 50), subdivided into three partes of the motet. Josquin sets the words Miserere mei, Deus ("Have mercy on me, O God") to a monotonic cantus firmus that he invented after the manner of a psalm tone. This cantus firmus recurs periodically through the singing of the psalm, like an antiphon, except that the pitch of its monotone changes, falling through the eight tones of the Phrygian (E) mode in the first pars, rising back up the octave in the second, and falling down a perfect fifth to A, the tonal center of the work, in the climactic last section. The piece is thus a unique and ingenious application of cantus firmus and imitative technique. It lasts about 15 minutes.

   See also Tenebrae.