Two Renaissance Motets for Double Brass Quartet

For Four Trumpets and Four Trombones

Sulpitia Lodovica Cesis (1577-c. 1619) came from Modena, the daughter of nobility.  She entered the convent of San Geminiano in 1593.  The convent was known for its excellent music.  Cesis played the lute well, and she composed an important collection of motets for two to twelve voices, Motetti spirituali, in 1619, several for antiphonal choirs.  Io son ferito sì (I Am Wounded, Yes) and Cantate Domino (O Sing Unto the Lord a New Song) from Psalm 98 were written for Trumpets I-II, Trombones I-II – Trumpets III-IV, Trombones III-IV and showcases the imaginative interweaving and combined brilliance of the eight brass instruments.

Cantate Domino (O sing unto the Lord a new song) is one of Cesis’ most favored genre – the antiphonal motet for two four-voice choirs.  This joyful text has lively rhythms, syncopations, and playful alternation between choirs.

Io son ferito sì (I Am Wounded, Yes) is a parody of the celebrated madrigal by Palestrina and is to be sung on the feast day of St. Francis. She took the typically baroque images of unrequited love and suffering present in the original madrigal and transformed them into a soliloquy by St. Francis on the stigmata.  Cesis skillfully juxtaposes imitation and free composition.