for mixed voices (SSAATTBB) a cappella
Text: Latin (antiphon from Trinity Sunday to Saturday before Advent)
Duration: 3'30''
Difficulty: 3/5
Use: General, Trinity, Marian


Composer's note
Each year at their Summer Festival in Tavistock, the Exon Singers feature the music of a living composer. In the Summer of 2008 I was privileged to be the chosen composer. Salve Regina was written for the Festival and was performed once at a concert and subsequently at a broadcast of Choral Evensong in Buckfast Abbey. The music is unaccompanied and set for a six-part choir, with two parts for both sopranos and basses (and divisi for altos and tenors in the final phrase). The music begins gently and there is some dialogue between upper and lower voices. The climax in the middle uses all six parts and the end is quiet and reflective. Although some of the phrases are short, they should be sung with much expression and with appropriate crescendos and diminuendos.


Recommended recording: Awake up my glory (Regent, REGCD315) by The Exon Singers, directed by Matthew Owens


Text
Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiæ,

vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve.

Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevæ.

Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes

in hac lacrimarum valle.

Eja, ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos

misericordes oculos ad nos converte.

Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,

nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.

O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria.

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy,

our life, our sweetness and our hope.

To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve.

To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and

weeping in this valley of tears.

Turn, then, most gracious advocate,

thine eyes of mercy toward us,

and after this, our exile, show unto us

the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.


Antiphon from Trinity Sunday until Saturday before Advent


Philip Moore
Philip Moore has held posts at Eton College, Canterbury and Guildford Cathedrals, and York Minster. Although much of his music is for choirs and organs, he has also written song cycles and chamber, piano and orchestral music. His pieces are sung in cathedrals, churches and concert halls throughout the world, and he is frequently featured on BBC broadcasts of Choral Evensong. One of his recent compositions, At the round earth’s imagined corners, a choral setting of a religious sonnet by John Donne, had its US premiere in Chicago in May 2014 with the St Charles Singers. The work has just been recorded by the Choir of Winchester Cathedral, with the Fine Arts Brass Ensemble, conducted by Andrew Lumsden. Moore has received a variety of honours and awards, the most recent being an honorary doctorate from the University of York. In 2014 he won second prize in a competition promoted by St Thomas, Fifth Avenue, New York, for a set of evening canticles for treble voices and organ. In addition he was the prize winner in a competition for a Christmas anthem, organised by St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol. He is organist emeritus of York Minster and will serve as president of the Royal College of Organists from 2015.