SSAATTBB divisi, a cappella
Written for the Pacific Lutheran University Choir of the West, Richard Nance, conductor, for their performance at the 2013 American Choral Directors Association National Conference.
Program Note: Though the original text source of Exsultate is unknown, Mozart’s well-known setting (K. 165) dates this particular version to the mid-18th century. Somewhat of a pastiche of psalm fragments, the text is one of celebration and ecstatic praise. This setting employs only the first stanza of the text, and is written for eight-part chorus.
The setting opens with a dramatic fanfare that serves as a ritornello-type pillar in the work. It twice returns—in the middle and at the end—but rhythmic expansion and contraction makes each return slightly different. Close vertical dissonances and sharp interjections serve as a musical representation of the euphoria of grand celebration. In the intermediate sections, fluid chant lines and the exchange of softer and slower statements between the women and men provide contrast to the highly rhythmic and driving festivity of the fanfares.
Exsulate is now published by Walton Music. Click here to view the publisher page and order through GIA Music Publications.
Text
Exsultate, jubilate Deo!
O vos animae beatae
dulcia cantica canendo;
cantui vestro respodendo
psallant aethera cum me!
Tu virginum corona,
tu nobis pacem dona,
tu consolare affectus,
unde suspirat cor.
Alleluia!
Rejoice, sing joyfully to God!
O you blessed souls,
sing sweet songs;
in response to your singing
the heavens sing with me!
You crown of virgins,
grant us peace,
console our afflictions,
from which our hearts sigh.
Alleluia!