''Sicut cervus'' is a

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...

for four voices by

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (between 3 February 1525 and 2 February 1526 – 2 February 1594) was an Italian composer of late Renaissance music. The central representative of the Roman School, with Orlande de Lassus and Tomás Luis de V ...

. It sets the beginning of

Psalm 42 Psalm 42 is the 42nd psalm of the Book of Psalms, often known in English by its incipit, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks" (in the King James Version). The Book of Psalms is part of the third section of the Hebrew Bible, and a boo ...

, Psalmus XLI in the Latin version of the ''Psalterium Romanum'' rather than the

Vulgate The Vulgate () is a late-4th-century Bible translations into Latin, Latin translation of the Bible. It is largely the work of Saint Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels used by the Diocese of ...

Bible. The

incipit The incipit ( ) of a text is the first few words of the text, employed as an identifying label. In a musical composition, an incipit is an initial sequence of Musical note, notes, having the same purpose. The word ''incipit'' comes from Latin an ...

is "Sicut cervus desiderat ad fontes" (As the deer desires the fountains) followed by a second part (''secunda pars'') "Sitivit anima mea" (My soul thirsts). It has become one of Palestrina's most popular motets, regarded as a model of

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chord ...

, expressing spiritual yearning.

History

The motet is a setting of

:1-3. The Psalm was a prescribed

tract Tract may refer to: Geography and real estate * Housing tract, an area of land that is subdivided into smaller individual lots * Land lot or tract, a section of land * Census tract, a geographic region defined for the purpose of taking a census ...

for the blessing of the water (font) on

Holy Saturday Holy Saturday (), also known as Great and Holy Saturday, Low Saturday, the Great Sabbath, Hallelujah Saturday, Saturday of the Glory, Easter Eve, Joyous Saturday, the Saturday of Light, Good Saturday, or Black Saturday, among other names, is t ...

, recalling the water of baptism as well as the "living water of the eucharist". The text, speaking of the longing for God, retained its association with funeral music, having been widely used as the

Tract Tract may refer to: Geography and real estate * Housing tract, an area of land that is subdivided into smaller individual lots * Land lot or tract, a section of land * Census tract, a geographic region defined for the purpose of taking a census ...

before the Tridentine

Roman Missal The Roman Missal () is the book which contains the texts and rubrics for the celebration of the Roman Rite, the most common liturgy and Mass of the Catholic Church. There have been several editions. History Before the Council of Trent (1570) ...

of 1570 standardized the tract ''Absolve, Domine''. The first edition which has survived in full is a posthumously published collection of motets, ''Motectorum quatuor vocibus, ...'' which appeared in Venice in 1604. However, it appears that a lost edition of ''Sicut Cervus'' was published in Rome during the composer's lifetime. It is now one of Palestrina's most anthologized works and regarded as a model of

Music

The motet is written for four voices,

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

alto The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: '' altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In four-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in ch ...

tenor A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...

, and

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

. It is set in imitative polyphony throughout, with attention to the meaning of the text in subtle word-painting. For the word "''desiderat''", expressing longing, the pace is faster, and the melody rises, reaching its peak on the word "''fontes''" (streams, water, fountains). In the continuation of the first part, "''ita desiderat anima mea ad te, Deus''" (Thus longs my soul for Thee, God), the human desire expressed in the first person is rendered in denser imitation and with more intense dissonance. The motet has been described as the expression of "serene but fervent spiritual yearning".

Cultural Significance

''Sicut Cervus'' remains one of Palestrina's most popular and frequently performed works and one of the rare motets that retained its popularity into the modern era. The motet has become the "unofficial anthem" of St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe), where it is sung every Wednesday by students and faculty and is the part of the first-year curriculum.

References

External links

* * {{italic title 1570 works Motets by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Psalm settings