Crux fidelis / Ecce lignum / O Crux ave (Ludwig Senfl)
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- Editor: Adrian Wall (submitted 2021-01-24). Score information: A4, 5 pages, 1.35 MB Copyright: Personal
- Edition notes: Transposed down a tone. Note values quartered.
General Information
Title: Crux fidelis / Ecce lignum / O Crux ave
Composer: Ludwig Senfl
Lyricist:
Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: SATB
Genre: Sacred, Motet, Canon
Language: Latin
Instruments: A cappella
Manuscript 1527 in Universitsbibliothek, Munich. MS 8° 322-325
First published: c. 1538 in Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich. 2 Mus.pr. 156#4 (Crux fidelis only)
2nd published: c. 1538 in Österreichische Nationalbibliotheque, Vienna. SA.87.D.8 Mus 32 (O Crux ave only)
3rd published: 1567 in Clemens Stephani: Suavissimae et iucundissimae harmoniae (Gerlach, Nuremberg) (Crux fidelis only)
4th published: 1568 in Clemens Stephani: Suavissimae et iucundissimae harmoniae, liber secundus (Gerlach, Nuremberg) (O Crux ave only)
Description: The earliest source of this group of settings of texts for Passiontide and Good Friday is a set of manuscript partbooks, compiled in Basel under the direction of Heinrich Glareanus, whose preface, in the tenor book, is dated 1527. Each of the pieces was printed in around 1538, probably by Petreius of Nuremberg, on a broadsheet, in the form of a cross: a copy of Crux fidelis appears among the collection of broadsheets now held at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich under the shelfmark 2 Mus.pr. 156; a copy of O Crux ave is held at the Österreichische Nationalbibliotheque in Vienna; a copy of Ecce lignum is known to have existed at the Sächsische Landbibliotheque in Dresden, but was destroyed in 1945.
The pieces have the inscription Canon. Misericordia & Veritas obviaverunt sibi. Justitia & Pax osculatae sunt. This quote — Psalm 84:11 (Vulgate) "Mercy and truth are met together; justice and peace have kissed each other" — gives a clue to the resolution of the canon, where two parts are retrograde versions of the other two. In the manuscript source, the resolution is written out.
External websites:
Original text and translations
Latin text Crux fidelis inter omnes |
English translation Faithful Cross, among all |
Original text and translations may be found at Crux fidelis.
Original text and translations may be found at Ecce lignum crucis.
Original text and translations may be found at Vexilla Regis.
- Posted in January 2021
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