Alma Redemptoris Mater

Palestrina: Alma Redemptoris Mater (Julian Podger, Monteverdi Choir)

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• published: 14 Dec 2009
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Disclaimer: I don't own this. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (between 3 February 1525 and 2 February 1526[1] 2 February 1594) was an Italian composer of the Renaissance. He was the most famous sixteenth-century representative of the Roman School of musical composition. Palestrina became famous through his output of sacred music.[2] He had a vast influence on the development of Roman Catholic church music, and his work can be seen as a summation of Renaissance polyphony. Alma Redemptoris Mater or, in English, "Loving Mother of our Savior," is one of four liturgical Marian antiphons (the other three being: Ave Regina caelorum, Regina coeli and Salve Regina), and sung at the end of the office of Compline. Hermannus Contractus (Herman the Cripple) (1013 - 1054) is said to have authored the hymn based on the writings of Ss. Fulgentius, Epiphanius, and Irenaeus of Lyon. It is mentioned in "The Prioress's Tale", one of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Formerly it was recited at compline only from the first Sunday in Advent until the Feast of the Purification (February 2), Latin Alma Redemptoris Mater, quae pervia caeli Porta manes, et stella maris, succurre cadenti, Surgere qui curat, populo: tu quae genuisti, Natura mirante, tuum sanctum Genitorem Virgo prius ac posterius, Gabrielis ab ore Sumens illud Ave, peccatorum miserere. English Loving Mother of our Savior, hear thou thy people's cry Star of the deep and Portal of the sky! Mother of Him who thee made from nothing made. Sinking we strive and call to thee for aid: Oh, by what joy which Gabriel brought to thee, Thou Virgin first and last, let us thy mercy see.