Recent Researches in the Music of the Baroque Era

This edition makes available an important collection of sacred music by Giovanni Felice Sances (ca. 1600-1679), a composer who has long been known primarily through his early secular works. The compositions of his Motetti a una, due, tre e quattro voci (Venice, 1638) provide fascinating examples of the seventeenth-century motet from the imperial court in Vienna. Relatively few pieces are through-composed in the manner of the Renaissance motet; most employ some structural device such as a refrain, instrumental ritornello, walking bass, ostinato, or quasi-ostinato. The collection is equally interesting as a cultural document, for it mirrors the liturgical, devotional, and representational needs of Sances's patrons, the Austrian Habsburgs. One motet, for example, provides a calculated homage to Emperor Ferdinand III, and others reflect the private devotional practices of members of the imperial family. Indeed, Sances's collection actively shaped seventeenth-century Viennese culture by helping to impose Catholic cultural hegemony, and publicly by articulating Habsburg notions of Catholic piety, monarchal duty, and the divine right of kings.

Music Sample

Contents
1. Ardet cor meum
2. Laetamini in Domino
3. O quam speciosa
4. Quemadmodum
5. Solvatur lingua mea
6. Conditor caeli et terrae
7. Audite me, divini fructus
8. Dulcis amor Jesu
9. Judica me, Deus
10. Domine, ne memineris
11. Psallite Domino
12. Vulnerasti cor meum
13. Deus in adjutorium
14. Tota pulchra es
15. Jubilent in caelis
16. Salvum me fac
17. Laudemus viros gloriosos
18. Plagae tuae, Domine
19. O crux benedicta
20. O Domine, guttae tui sanguinis
21. Ave, Regina caelorum
22. O Jesu mi
23. Magnificemus in cantico
24. Iste confessor
25. Ave, maris stella
26. O Jesu mi dulcissime
27. Salve, Regina