Rorate Caeli
Chamber cantata
Published in 2019
Available at Rózsavölgyi Zeneműbolt & Webshop: ITT
The Rorate is a morning mass held every morning from the first Sunday of Advent until Christmas, which gained such importance in the Hungarian Catholic Church, that the Holy See, which otherwise did not support the liturgical canonization of Rorate, allowed the Hungarian Church to use it at the end of 19th century. The poetic beauty of the text deserves special attention.
It appears in many forms during the history of music, both as an individual setting or as part of a large form.
The chamber cantata was composed for a four-part vocal ensemble, folk solo singer and piano (in a church performance, the piano part is divided between the organ and the glockenspiel). In accordance with the original form, the two-line text of Rorate cæli is regularly inserted between the stanzas of the prayer text, mostly in the performance of the folk singer, almost directly recalling the intonation and melodic structure of the countryside. In response to this, the ensemble builds a dialogue in a madrigalesque style, but with somewhat dramatic emphasis, which shows the universal relationship between man and God. Latin prosody includes the possibility of many special rhythmic and metrical turns. A special effect is created when in the final section the members of the choir play the hymn-like coda on recorders.
The duration of the work is 12 minutes.
The Rorate is a morning mass held every morning from the first Sunday of Advent until Christmas, which gained such importance in the Hungarian Catholic Church, that the Holy See, which otherwise did not support the liturgical canonization of Rorate, allowed the Hungarian Church to use it at the end of 19th century. The poetic beauty of the text deserves special attention.
It appears in many forms during the history of music, both as an individual setting or as part of a large form.
The chamber cantata was composed for a four-part vocal ensemble, folk solo singer and piano (in a church performance, the piano part is divided between the organ and the glockenspiel). In accordance with the original form, the two-line text of Rorate cæli is regularly inserted between the stanzas of the prayer text, mostly in the performance of the folk singer, almost directly recalling the intonation and melodic structure of the countryside. In response to this, the ensemble builds a dialogue in a madrigalesque style, but with somewhat dramatic emphasis, which shows the universal relationship between man and God. Latin prosody includes the possibility of many special rhythmic and metrical turns. A special effect is created when in the final section the members of the choir play the hymn-like coda on recorders.
The duration of the work is 12 minutes.