Ave verum corpus - Richard Dering, John Rutter, The Cambridge Singers
18. 'Ave verum corpus'
From the album ‘Images of Christ’
Composer Richard Dering
Conductor John Rutter
Choir The Cambridge Singers
Buy, download or stream: https://smarturl.it/ImagesOfChrist
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Ave verum corpus
Richard Dering was an English Catholic exile who worked and published his music on the continent, becoming organist to the convent of English nuns in Brussels around 1617. Ave verum Corpus comes from his first published volume of music, the Cantiones Sacrae of 1617. It is a tribute to Dering’s compositional gifts that his setting of this familiar text can withstand comparison with Byrd’s. As with Byrd’s setting, the music breathes an air of mystery and devotion, tinged with the pain of the Crucifixion.
LYRICS:
Ave verum corpus, natum de Maria Virgine:
Vere passum, immolatum in cruce pro homine:
Cuius latus perforatum unda fluxit sanguine:
Esto nobis praegustatum in mortis examine.
O dulcis, O pie, O Jesu Fili Mariae,
Miserere mei.
(Sequence hymn for the Feast of Corpus Christi)
All hail, O true Body, of the blessed Virgin born,
Which in anguish to redeem us did’st suffer upon the cross;
From whose side, when pierced by spear, there came forth both water and blood:
Be to us at our last hour the source of consolation.
O loving, O holy, O Jesu, thou Son of Mary,
O have mercy on me.
Images of Christ
Around the figure of Christ there has grown up over the centuries a body of choral literature that can only be described as among the most remarkable in western civilization. The music of this recording, all for a cappella choir, is grouped loosely according to the themes of its texts (The Coming of Christ, Words of Christ, The Passion of Christ, Resurrection and Ascension, Christ in the Eucharist), drawing together composers as far apart in time and space as 11th-century France; 20th-century Russia and America. The aim is not a liturgical reconstruction, nor an historical survey, but rather a journey of the imagination.
John Rutter, English composer and conductor, is associated with choral music throughout the world. His recordings with the Cambridge Singers (the professional chamber choir he set up in 1983) have reached a wide global audience, many of them featuring his own music in definitive versions. Among John’s best-known choral works are Gloria, Requiem, Magnificat, Mass of the Children, and Visions, together with many church anthems, choral songs and Christmas carols.
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