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The music of Cipriano De Rore

Usquequo Domine - Illumina oculos meos


A. Type: Motet
B. Number of voices: 5vv
Ct. Text: (with translation in Dutch English) : Read


E. To be found in the following score sources:

following: Bernstein, Jane A. (1998) :
- 1545 : {Bernstein} - 52 : 'Rore, Motetta quinque vocum'

following: CMME Project(The) - Dumitrescu (e.a.), Theodor :
- {Census} - ParisBNC 851 ("Bourdeney Manuscript") : '{Census} - ParisBNC 851 ("Bourdeney Manuscript")'

following: Lewis, Mary S. (1988) :
- 1545 : {Lewis_1} - 73 : 'RORE. MOTETS A 5'

following: Meier, Bernardus (1959) :
- 1545 : {Meier_I} - R1545 : 'Cipriani Rore Musici Excellentissimi Motetta nunc primum summa diligentia in lumen prodita. Venetiis apud Antonium Gardane. MDXXXXV'


F. Modern score:

See 'Meier, Bernardus : Cipriani Rore Opera Omnia, Vol I : Motets' : p.68

  • Contents of this volume of Meier
  • American Institute of Musicology : Uitgave De Rore (B. Meier)


    I. Incipit: M_1_68.jpg Source: 'Meier, Bernardus : Cipriani Rore Opera Omnia', American Institute of Musicology


    J. Discography:

    1 - ' Leipziger Disputation , Calmus Ensemble, Amarcord (Carus)
    2 - ' Motette und Madrigale der Renaissance - Josquin Des Prés - Cyprian de Rore , Die Prager Madrigalisten, Miroslav Venhoda (Intercord)


    L. References:

    References with citation/remark:

    1 : Meier, Bernardus, Cipriani Rore Opera Omnia, Vol I : Motets (American Institute of Musicology (AIM), 1959)
    - p.IV : 'Often semitones are introduced owing to textual considerations, though they may be foreign to the prevailing mode (figure of Pathopoiia). This happens for example in bars 77 (dolorem) and 89 (in morte) of Usquequo Domine, and in bars 67f. (columba mea) of Si ignoras te. '

    2 : Meier, Bernardus, Cipriani Rore Opera Omnia, Vol I : Motets (American Institute of Musicology (AIM), 1959)
    - p.IV : 'In a similar way we find katabasis in the words in morte (Usquequo Domine, Cantus, bars 8 5 f.), or on mors mihi est (Angustiae mihi sunt undique, bars 29-33).'

    3 : Meier, Bernardus, Cipriani Rore Opera Omnia, Vol I : Motets (American Institute of Musicology (AIM), 1959)
    - p.IV-V : 'The employment of unusual cadences brings us to a further method of relating word and tone, which was apparently widely used in the present motets, namely the commixtio tonorum inspired by pictorial or expressive elements in the text. Already Nulla scientia melior provides an impressive example at the words Nihil recte existimat, qui se ipsum ignorat (bars 94-108). The imitations starting on f and c (together with their octave transpositions), the melody formed from the fifth c'-f (c’'-f') and the fourth f'-c' (f"-c", f-c), and the cadences on F of this section (bars 97f., 101 f., 103 f.) belong to the fifth mode, which occurs here as a conscious break with the basic principle of adhering to the mode chosen for the composition. Such a change from the first mode transposed to the upper fourth (G, with b flat) can only be due to consideration for the text. This is true also of the cadence on G in bars 101 f. of Usquequo Domine (praevalui adversus eum) and the unprepared appearance of the fifth a'-e'' (re-la) instead of g-d" (ut-sol) in the superius of the motet Quid gloriaris in malitia (bars 67 ff., Propterea Deus destruet te) - Commixtio of the first with the third mode appears in the present motets particularly in Hesperia cum laeta: here the introduction of the third mode is bound up with the textlines Et modo divitias miratur fertilis agri (bars 21-29) and Quis mihi te similem pinxit, mea dulcis imago? (bars 58-71), and finally with the concluding distich (bars 96ff.).
    The return to the first mode is made by bringing in imitative motifs, whose melody is formed from this mode's species of fifth, re-la, before the entry of cadence on d, as in bars 29f. (Tenor, Quintus) and the imitative groups of bars 69ff. and 107ff. It is also in bars 55-57 of the motet In Domino confido (third mode) that we expect a cadence on d at the words Justus autem quid fecit?" ending the prima pars, but instead we get a turn to G on the final chord, a change only to be found otherwise at a „fuggir la cadenza". Thus Rore increases here the impression of confusion. The fact that „commixtio" is an unusual feature is stressed in bars 53-59 of Angustiae mihi sunt undique, where it is applied at the words „qui absconditorum es cognitor" in the melody of Tenor, Bassus, Quintus and Altus. AIthough by no means obvious here, the fifth la-re (d-G or d'-g) does replace the prevailing species sol-ut (c-f), while cadences on g are continually avoided.
    The return to the first mode is made by bringing in imitative motifs, whose melody is formed from this mode's species of fifth, re-la, before the entry of cadence on d, as in bars 29f. (Tenor, Quintus) and the imitative groups of bars 69ff. and 107ff. '


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