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Use: General
Required Resources: SATB choir
Language: English
At the urging of Pope Urban IV, Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote the texts for the newly-created feast of Corpus Christi in 1264.
The last two stanzas of the Vesper hymn, Pange lingua, begin Tantum ergo Sacramentum.
Fr. Edward Caswall, a British Anglican who converted to Catholicism in 1847, translated this hymn into its commonly-used English form, "Down in Adoration Falling."
Ross Semler uses this familiar text with an original melody.
It is harmonized superbly for SATB choir, a cappella.
The voice parts are extremely comfortable, each extending no more than an octave, in standard range.
While particuarly appropriate for Benediction, this motet could also be sung on Holy Thursday or for Communion at other times.
Ross Semlar is Director of Sacred Music and Liturgy at the Saint John University Parish in Morgantown, West Virigina.
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