SATB choir, basso continuo - Level 3

SKU: CA.170710

Composed by Gottfried August Homilius. Edited by Uwe Wolf. German title: Sehet, Welch Eine Liebe (In E) Neu. Sacred, Motets; Use during church year: Christmas. Full score. HoWV V.48. Duration 3 minutes. Carus Verlag #CV 01.707/10. Published by Carus Verlag (CA.170710).

ISBN 9790007192280. Key: E major. Language: German.

The unusual thing about this sentimental four-voice Christmas motet is its character as a choral arrangement: In the middle section the base intones parts of the fourth verse of the song In dulci jubilo, while the three upper voices play around with the melody in small note-values and with this motet's characteristic syncopated rhythm in 3. Score available separately - see item CA.170700.

With Basso continuo - Level 3

SKU: CA.170700

Composed by Gottfried August Homilius. Edited by Reinhold Kubik. German title: Sehet, Welch Eine Liebe (In C) Org+E. Sacred, Motets; Use during church year: Easter and Eastertide. Full score. HoWV V.48. Duration 3 minutes. Carus Verlag #CV 01.707/00. Published by Carus Verlag (CA.170700).

ISBN 9790007006006. Key: E major. Language: German/English.

The unusual thing about this sentimental four-voice Christmas motet is its character as a choral arrangement: In the middle section the base intones parts of the fourth verse of the song In dulci jubilo, while the three upper voices play around with the melody in small note-values and with this motet's characteristic syncopated rhythm in 3.

Soprano voice, two violins & continuo

SKU: HH.HH435-FSP

Edited by Michael Talbot. Full score and parts. Edition HH Music Publishers #HH435-FSP. Published by Edition HH Music Publishers (HH.HH435-FSP).

ISBN 9790708146414.

Gius eppe Torelli (1658–1709) was the reputed father of the instrumental concerto, yet he also composed sacred vocal music. Discovered in 2001, when the Berlin Sing-Akademie’s archive was returned from Kiev (where it had been hidden away since the Second World War), his three-movement Christmas motet Totus orbis, umbra canit (‘The whole world, the darkness sings’), scored for soprano, two violins and continuo, is a splendid example of its genre. Torelli probably wrote it at Ansbach during a brief interregnum around 1700 when his employer, the Basilica di San Petronio in Bologna, temporarily suspended its orchestra, leaving its members to seek their fortune elsewhere. Like its predecessors in the series (Edition HH, Dec. 2016 & Jan. 2017), this is a vibrant, technically challenging work full of exquisite touches that reaches the level of similar motets by Alessandro Scarlatti and looks forward to Vivaldi.