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Rorate caeli (Christoph Dalitz, 2013)

This is a beautiful antiphonal chant for the time of advent. The text is based upon Isaja. Even though some chant books call it a "gregorian" chant, it can hardly be of medieval origin because of its tonality and madrigalesque text illustration. Actually, this is a very attractive mixture of musical concepts developed in the 16th century with a medieval style. The book Cantus Selecti (Tournai, 1957) lists P. Bourget as the probable author and 1634 as the year of publication.

I have made a polyphonic setting only for the chorus, so that the piece can be quickly learned by every choir. The verses should be sung alternating monophonic. My polyphonic setting adds another appropriate musical style (16c counterpoint) to this fine example of "period composing".

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