Sances: Motetti a una, due, tre, e quattro voci (1638)

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.

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