Three Motets and a chorale from a St John Passion

Motet: quia id quod acciditmp3
I Cantori, Los Angeles; UCSD New Music Ensemble

quia id quod accidit
non est immitis
pudebat omnia
mitiora

mens, ora, dicta horum
hominesque, trisitiam
superimponunt
eius membra

prius quam tristitia accidit
omnisque prius quam mitiora
accidit pro omnibus tristiis
prius quam omnia mitiora

tr. Basil Bunting
in Overdrafts, 1932

In that this happening
is not unkind
it put to
shame every kindness
mind, mouths, their words
people, put sorrow
on
its body
before sorrow it came
and before every kindness
happening for every sorrow
before every kindness

 Louis Zukofsky
 No. 13 of "29 Songs"

Permissions
Oxford University Press, London
for Verse and Version from Overdrafts
in Collected Poems of Basil Bunting, 1978
Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and Paul Zukofsky
for Number 13 of 29 Songs
in Complete Short Poetry of Louis Zukofsky, 1991

Motet: Atolite Portas, principes, vestras

Atollite Portas, principes, vestras,
et elevamini, portae æternatis,
et introibit Rex Gloriae.

Quis est iste Rex Gloriae?
Dominus fortis et potens,
Dominus potens in prælio.

Atollite Portas, principes, vestras,
et elevamini, portae æternatis,
et introibit Rex Gloriae.

Lift up your heads, O Gates,
and be lifted up, everlasting doors
and the King of Glory will come in.

Who is this King of Glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
The Lord mighty in battle.

Lift up your heads O Gates,
and be lifted up, everlasting doors
and the King of Glory will come in.

Psalm 24, 7-9

Motet: Vinea mea electa
I Cantori, Los Angeles; UCSD New Music Ensemble

Vinea mea electa, ego te plantavi,
quomodo conversa est in amaritudinem,
ut me crucifigeres, et Barabbam dimitteres?

Sepivi te, et lapides elegi ex te,
et ædificavi tui turim.

Quomodo conversa est in amaritudinem,
ut me crucifigeres, et Barabbam dimitteres?

Vinea mea electa...

My chosen vineyard, I have planted you
why have you become so bitter
that you should crucify me, and release Barabbas?

I have made a hedge around you;
plucked the stones out of you, and have built a tower.
Why have you become so bitter
that you should crucify me, and release Barabbas?

My chosen vineyard...

paraphrase of Jeremiah 2:21 et seq. (Matthew 21, 33-44)
Good Friday Tenebrae, 1st Nocturn, 3rd. respond

Chorale
I Cantori, Los Angeles; UCSD New Music Ensemble

Crux fidelis, inter omnes,
 Arbor una nobilis:

Nulla Silva, talem profert
 Fronde, flore germine:

Dulce lignum, dulces clavos,
 Dulce pondus sustinet.

Faithful cross, above all other
 One and only noble tree:

None in foliage, none in flower,
 none in fruit thy peer may be:

Sweetest wood and sweetest iron,
 Sweetest weight is hung on thee.

 Good Friday Antiphon for hymn "Pange Lingua"
 at the Veneration of the Cross