SSAA choir
SKU:
CA.964420
No. 3
from Three Marian
Motets. Composed by
Ko Matsushita.
Contemporary Choir Music.
Hodie Beata Virgo Maria
Fass.Ssaa. Sacred vocal
music, Advent, Feasts of
the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Hymns in praise of the
Virgin Mary. Full score.
Carus Verlag #CV
09.644/20. Published by
Carus Verlag (CA.964420).
ISBN 9790007143497.
Text language:
Latin.
The aged
Simeon takes the new-born
Jesus in his arms,
recognises his
significance and
celebrates this moment in
a paean of praise as the
fulfilment of his life.
In Matsushita's motet
this song of praise, the
nunc dimittis, stands at
the centre of the
composition. Here, the
triad of C-F sharp-G,
used for the word hodie -
today at the beginning,
symbolically combines
with a Gregorian-like
motif, revolving around
the central note of B
flat in whole-tone
movement, and which is
used to represent the
Virgin Mary. The work
ends with a mystical wash
of sound, a whole-tone
cluster which emerges
from the aleatorically
repeated basic motifs of
the work, and fades away
to nothing.