Ave verum corpus (Mozart)

First page of Mozart's autograph

Ave verum corpus ( KV 618) is a motet in D major by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for four-part mixed choir , strings and organ. This is the most famous setting of the medieval hymn Ave verum and, despite its brevity (46 bars), one of Mozart's most famous works.

description

Ave verum , performed by Senftenberg Choir and Orchestra

Mozart composed his Ave verum almost half a year before his death while he was working on the Magic Flute and the Requiem at the same time . The autograph is dated June 17, 1791 , it starts with the instruction: sotto voce (in a hushed voice). The work was probably created for the Corpus Christi service for Anton Stoll, school teacher and choir regent of the parish church of St. Stephan in Baden near Vienna , with whom Mozart was friends.

melody

The melody begins as follows:

text

Ave, ave verum corpus
natum de Maria Virgine.
Vere passum, immolatum
in cruce pro homine:
Cuius latus perforatum
unda fluxit et sanguine:
Esto nobis praegustatum
in mortis examine.

The last verse of the hymn: O Jesu dulcis! O Jesus pie! O Jesu fili Mariae. left out Mozart for unknown reasons.

Adapted translation by Peter Gerloff :

Greetings to you, Body of the Lord, born
of Mary's pure womb!
To bring home what was lost,
you bore the cross and deathless.
From the spear-pierced side
, blood and water flowed red.
Be us a foretaste in the struggle,
heavenly power in dire straits!

Impact history

Franz Liszt cites Mozart's Ave verum in the second movement of his piano works Evocation a la Chapelle Sixtine , which in turn by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in his orchestral suite Mozartiana orchestrated was.

Hector Berlioz named the work in his Grand Traité d'instrumentation et d'orchestration modern as a model for the correct use of the human voice:

“For an andante [for choir voices] in sustained and gentle tones, [the composer] will only use the notes of the middle register, as these alone have the appropriate timbre to be given with calm and purity and to be sustained pianissimo without the slightest effort. This is what Mozart did in his heavenly prayer 'Ave verum corpus'. "

Alfred Einstein writes in his Mozart biography:

“It [the Ave verum ] is artistic and song-like at the same time; it is as deep as it is simple; at the same time it maintains the distance from the divine, the reverence for the unsearchable, and is full of trust and purity of feeling, one might say: full of trust. "

expenditure

• Austrian National Library , Vienna, Mus. Hs. 18.975 / 3. Complete color facsimile edition of the original manuscript in original size. Edited and commented by Günter Brosche . ISBN 978-3-201-01741-1 .

literature

• Ludwig von Köchel , Franz Giegling , Alexander Weinmann , Gerd Sievers (eds.): Chronological-thematic directory of all of Wolfgang Amadé Mozart's music works . 8th edition. Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 1983, ISBN 3-7651-0019-6 .

Web links

Commons : Ave verum corpus (WA Mozart)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Ave verum corpus KV 618 : Score and critical report in the New Mozart Edition
• Sheet music in the public domain of Ave verum corpus in the Choral Public Domain Library - ChoralWiki (English)
• Ave verum corpus : Sheet music and audio files in the International Music Score Library Project
• Church choir Baden St. Stephan

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Text version by Peter Gerloff of Mozart's movement in the sheet music (PDF; 34 kB)
2. ^ Hector Berlioz : Grand Traité d'instrumentation et d'orchestration modern . S. 233. German: Instrumentationlehre. Completed and revised by Richard Strauss . Peters, Leipzig 1904; Reprint: Peters, Frankfurt am Main 1955, p. 376
3. ^ Alfred Einstein: Mozart. His character, his work. Bermann-Fischer, Stockholm 1947; Paperback edition: Fischer Taschenbuchverlag, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-596-17058-3 , p. 357.