Cecilia Virgo

(L)

Choral level of difficulty: 4 (5 greatest)

This striking motet for double SATB chorus was commissioned by the choir of Royal Holloway (University of London) for their annual St Cecilia’s Day concert in 2012. St Cecilia is the Patron Saint of Musicians and the text (Anon, medieval in Latin) asks, at its central point, that ‘you may be worthy of turning the mourning of the world into the glory of paradise’. The setting is made particularly arresting by the two choirs singing in the directly opposing keys of C and D major. It is an extraordinary effect and in its moments of resolution has the effect of a choir singing in a highly reverberant acoustic where the texture builds exponentially allowing only the last sounding chord to settle in the building. It is a joyful, celebratory motet with fanfares and exuberant semiquaver runs; long-held quiet chords punctuated by dramatic gestures from the other choir, and beautifully linear eight-part counterpoint. The final ‘Sancta Cecilia, ora pro nobis (‘St. Cecilia, pray for us’) has the confident certainty of the truly faithful.

The motet also needs a choir of some confident certainty. The notes are not especially difficult, and rehearsing the choirs separately will show how each choir’s lines are both melodic, and sit within a recognizable chordal or melodic sequence. It is the polychoral effects in directly opposing keys which makes the motet challenging and choirs need to hold their nerve when being pulled like magnetic north to the key of the other choir. But the motet is eminently manageable by good amateur choirs who should relish the challenge and enjoy its dramatic results.

Repertoire Note by Paul Spicer