Angelus Domini

Use: Eastertide
Required Resources: SATB choir
Language: Latin

The text for this motet is the Offertory for the Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday):

The angel of the Lord descended from heaven and said to the women: "He whom you seek has risen, as he said." Alleluia.

The setting uses the incipit (opening phrase) of the Gregorian chant Offertory from the Graduale Romanum or the Gregorian Missal. This is essentially a 3-part motet (STB), where occasionally the altos have a separate part. CNP offers a version in D Major which places the highest soprano note at A above the staff. The original, written with a very high soprano (perhaps a boy treble) in mind, and was pitched a third higher, in F Major. Singing in the original key is entirely possible with this a cappella setting.

Of the lower key (D Major) the composer writes:

The piece is such that the dolce nature is quite tranquil, so transposing down a bit works. It has a warm flavor in the men's voices, which act like a hypnotic accompaniment. The opening chant may perhaps be even more ideal in D, since that is where it was more likely to have been sung.

Richard Clark is Director of Music/Organist at Saint Cecilia Catholic Church in the Back Bay section of Boston. He has received degrees from Boston Conservatory and Berklee College of Music, and has also studied music in Belgium and Italy. He was a prize winner in the Boston Chapter American Guild of Organists Young Artists' Competition.