Ne irascaris / Civitas sancti tui (Byrd) arranged for SATB by Mark Emerson Donnelly (© 2017, 2020)

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Sung by OFFERTORIUM
Soprano: Veronica Roenitz, Gregory Donnelly
Alto: Mary-Kate Donnelly
Tenor: Ed De Vita, Mark Donnelly
Bass: Christopher Suen

Recorded at rehearsal Nov 19, 2020
Holy Family Parish, Vancouver, BC Canada

We were intending to sing these at Mass for the offertory & communion motets for the Last Sunday after Pentecost, November 22 (also the Feast of St. Cecilia, patroness of music!). Alas, just before rehearsal, the provincial government announced that public religious services were to be suppressed beginning the next day.
We decided to record these arrangements of Byrd's masterpieces and release them as a video.

Notes on the performance:
OFFERTORIUM performs at A=432Hz, not A=440Hz (we're with Verdi on this one).
We also perform this arrangement a semi-tone lower than written pitch (G rather than A flat). Most scores of the original five voice edition are in G.

A note on the arrangements:
Many church choirs have one strong singer per section. This fact eliminates from their repertoire the great number of beautiful five voice motets. That being the case, and with the ubiquity of "a cappella" vocal quartets, I have arranged some of these for SATB.

My goal in these arrangements is, firstly, to not make them sound like something is missing, and, secondly, to stay true to the style and intent of the composer (as far as I can tell).

In 2017, we had some critical absences for the Last Sunday after Pentecost. That occasioned my SATB arrangement of Byrd's original SATTB of "Civitas sancti".

In 2020, in order to complete the double motet, I decided to subject the Prima pars, "Ne irascaris" to the same treatment. If you know the original, you'll notice that I do not simply move notes around; sometimes I'll add something that is similar to a line in another motet by the same composer. Anyway, I hope you like it.

God bless!
Mark
(© 2017, 2020 MED)