For you and your choirs: for the season of Advent through the joyous celebration of the birth of Christ, we’re highlighting a selection of works in a variety of settings from our extensive repertoire of motets.
In his Christmas Motet, Albert Becker combines the prophetic message from Isaiah 9:1 (“The people who walk in darkness”) with the chorale Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her. He creates a special composition for four-part mixed choir by means of an impressive fugue-like theme and the transition from the darkness to the light of the birth of Christ.
In 1893 Rheinberger composed a cycle of nine propers for the Sundays in Advent for the Munich Hofkapelle. The short, lively motets are of medium difficulty, ideal for choral singing during Advent.
Like Hugo Distler's heartfelt retelling of the Christmas story in op. 10, his Four Motets for Advent and Christmas, composed at various different times during his life, resonate vividly and with empathy. Recalling the energy of madrigals, Distler conjures up images of light, imbued with a powerful sense of hope.
In the Christmas motet Hodie Christus natus est, Schütz displays his mastery of madrigalian musical language and fully exploits the tonal possibilities of six-part harmony. Alternating voices exchange the greeting of peace, pax, while joyful choruses of Alleluia continue throughout with a sense of playfulness and sophistication.
The six-part motets Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her, Freut euch und jubiliert, Gloria in excelsis Deo and Joseph, lieber Joseph mein by Sethus Calvisius, cantor of St Thomas’s in Leipzig, express the joy of Christmas in sound. Ideal for Christmas Vespers, the motets can be inserted into the reading of the Christmas story according to Luke or between the verses of the Magnificat.
In his chorale motet the composer Johann Joachim Wachsmann combines Christian praise with the promise of peace from Luke 2:14. This four-part motet is ideal for all sorts of Christmas events, with its catchy melody and poignant tonal color.
Armin Landgraf composed a moving setting for four-part choir for the words of Angelus Silesius. This short but intense piece expresses the joy of the birth of Christ with coloratura writing and a clear message: the birth of Christ must be embraced inwardly.
Some time after 1733 Louis-Nicolas Clérambault published a collection of six sacred motets (C 58–63) for soprano and mezzo-soprano (solo or choral) with basso continuo in Paris. The quality of these pieces and the relative rarity of original compositions for women's choir from the Baroque period make these motets ideal for the Advent and Christmas season.
Lorenzo Donati’s five motets in aurora form an impressive setting of the sections of the Proprium. With lively rhythmic changes and carefully considered dynamics, they provide an ideal arrangement for the Christmas Mass.
Guillaume Bouzignac’s compositions exerted a decisive influence on French sacred music in the early Baroque period. His four a cappella motets for the Christmas season are “sacred stories” in which the soprano enters into a dialog with the other voices.
This Christmas motet with organ accompaniment captivates with polished harmonies and joyful coloratura. A musical jewel of the early baroque that would suit many programs during the Christmas season.
This three-movement cantata for mixed choir and orchestra is ideal for Christmas services and Advent performances. It’s a highly effective work with a pastorale in the introductory movement, a dialog between angels and humans in the middle movement, and a virtuosic final chorus with trumpets and timpani.
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Johann Christoph Bach's Christmas motet is characterized by its scope, harmonic richness and the compositional density of the double choir format. The imaginative tone-painting effects and the flexible treatment of the chorale melody Vom Himmel hoch are particularly striking.
