Remember not, Lord, our offenses

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Portrait of the composer Henry Purcell by John Closterman

Remember Not, Lord, Our Offenses (Remember, O Lord, not our sins), Z.50, is a hymn of the Anglican Church, composed by Henry Purcell in 1680 as a motet for five-part choir a cappella . The text in English is part of a litany compiledby Thomas Cranmer , Archbishop of Canterbury and later included in the Book of Common Prayer . Purcell wrote the work between 1679 and 1682, at the beginning of his tenure as Organist and Master of the Choristers ( Cantor ) at Westminster Abbey .

text

The text for Purcell's hymn is a passage at the beginning of the litany Exhortation and Litany , compiled in 1544 by Thomas Cranmer , Archbishop of Canterbury . Cranmer laid down the liturgical structures of the Church of England after the Reformation and prepared the first official service in English. He developed his text from elements from two medieval Latin litanies of the Sarum custom and Martin Luther's German litany . Cranmer added his litany to the new edition of the Book of Common Prayer in 1549 and it remained as The Litany in later editions. Purcell set the following section to music:

Remember not, Lord, our Offences,
Nor th 'Offences of our forefathers;
Neither take thou vengeance of our sins,
But spare us, good Lord.
Spare thy people, whom thou has redeem'd
With thy most precious blood,
And be not angry with us for ever.
Save us, good lord.

In German translation:

Do not remember, Lord, our transgressions,
nor those of our forefathers;
Do not retaliate against us for our sins either,
but spare us, merciful Lord.
Spare your people, whom you have redeemed,
with your most precious blood,
and do not be angry with us forever.
Have mercy on our good Lord.

composition

Remember not, Lord, our Offences is set for five-part a cappella choir , consisting of divided soprano , alto , tenor and bass ( SSATB ). Purcell wrote the work in A minor in 44 bars . Some arrangements add an instrumental accompaniment by continuo . The American musicologist Franklin B. Zimmerman lists the anthem as Z.50 in his catalog of Purcell's works. A performance lasts about three minutes.

The setting goes back to the polyphonic tradition of William Byrd and Thomas Tallis , but is understandable through simple melodies and syllabic treatment of words. Claude Hermann finds expressiveness in music and, typical of Anglican church music, sensitivity, moderation and simplicity.

Dating and style

Westminster Abbey Choir

Musicologists say that the composition was composed between 1679 and 1682. Zimmerman, the author of the Zimmerman Catalog , dates it to around 1680–82, Robert Shay and Robert Thompson give it around 1679–81. William Cummings notes that Purcell added the work to a collection of anthems in 1683. At the time of composition, Purcell was organist and master of the choristers at Westminster Abbey . He was appointed in 1679 as the successor to John Blow and was thus responsible for the music at the Church of the English monarchy. Purcell devoted the following years exclusively to the composition of sacred music. In July 1682, Purcell was appointed organist at the Chapel Royal after the death of Edward Lowe .

Purcell collected early and new church music, including many of his own works, for use in both churches. Two manuscripts from the collection are kept in the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge . Both contain Remember not, Lord, our Offences .

The anthems, including Remember not, Lord, our Offences , which Purcell composed for Westminster Abbey before he was also appointed to the Chapel Royal, are described as his last concentrated examination of the verse anthem without strings ("last concentrated involvement with the verse anthem without strings "), because after 1681 Purcell added string accompaniment to his anthems, which he was able to do at the Chapel Royal, as the musicologist Martin Adams notes. Adams notes that many anthems of this period are adaptations of earlier works, including the well-known Anglican funeral sentences, and that these works are characterized by complex contrapuntal texture, restriction to limited motivic material, and the dark expression of penitential texts (" distinguished by complex contrapuntal textures, a concentration on a limited quantity of motivic material, and the somber expression of penitential texts ").

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Society of Archbishop Justus. Resources: Exhortations and Litany (1544) . Retrieved November 26, 2013.
  2. ↑ MacCulloch, Diarmaid. Thomas Cranmer , (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996), pp. 326-328.
  3. ^ The Litany / Text and Translation of Chorale . bach-cantatas.com. Retrieved November 24, 2013.
  4. ^ Cummings, Brian (editor). The Book of Common Prayer: The Texts of 1549, 1559, and 1662 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 41, 117, 260.
  5. ^ The Church of England. The Litany from The Book of Common Prayer . Retrieved November 24, 2013.
  6. ^ A b c Zimmerman, Franklin B. Henry Purcell 1659–1695: An Analytical Catalog of his Music. (London: MacMillan & Co., 1963).
  7. ↑ cf. 3:09 for Collegium Vocale, dir. Philippe Herreweghe, "Remember not, Lord, our Offences" (track 2) on Henry Purcell Funeral Sentences Musique Funèbre Pour la Reine Mary . harmonia mundi 901462 (1995); and 2:55 on Choir of Clare College, Cambridge, dir. Timothy Brown. "Remember not, Lord, our Offences" (track 6) on Purcell Choral Works, Te Deum, Jubilate Deo & more . Regis Records (2006). Retrieved February 7, 2014.
  8. ↑ Claude Hermann: Music of the Reformation . harmonia mundi PDF, pp. 175-176 (2010). Retrieved April 23, 2014.
  9. ↑ a b Shay, Robert and Thompson, Robert. Purcell Manuscripts: The Principal Musical Sources (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), pp. 44, 179.
  10. ↑ Cummings, William Hayman. Henry Purcell, 1658-1695 . (New York: Haskell House Publishers, 1881), pp. 41-42.
  11. ↑ a b Runciman, John F. Purcell . (London: George Bell & Sons, 1909).
  12. ↑ Hutchings, Arthur. Purcell . (London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1982), p. 85.
  13. ↑ University of Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum MS 88, item 25, folio 99r, and MS 117, item 79, folio 124, p. 213 as "Vers of ye litany" (Remember not, O Lord)
  14. ^ Thompson, Robert: "Purcell's great autographs" in Price, Curtis (editor) Purcell Studies (Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 1995), pp. 6-34 (31).
  15. ↑ Shay, Robert. "Purcell as collector of 'ancient' music: Fitzwilliam MS 88" in Price, Curtis (editor) Purcell Studies (Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 1995), pp. 35-50.
  16. ↑ a b c Adams, Martin. Henry Purcell: The Origins and Development of His Musical Style . (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 24, 179.