Woodwind Ensemble Flute - Level 2 - Digital Download
SKU: A0.922021
Composed by Josquin des Prez. Arranged by Kenneth Chia. Renaissance,Sacred. 17 pages. Tuning Fork Music PLT #6471831. Published by Tuning Fork Music PLT (A0.922021).
It is our pleasure to introduce to you an arrangement of Responde Mihi, a motet by the great Franco-Flemish Renaissance-era composer Josquin Des Prez.
The original piece by Josquin was a music setting of verses from the Book of Job, Chapter 13, verses 22 through 28. These verses are part of the 4th lesson from the 9 lessons from the Offices of the Dead that are published in the Liber Usualis.
The Latin text is as follows:
Responde mihi: quantas habeo iniquitates et peccata,
scelera mea et delicta ostende mihi.
Cur faciem tuam abscondis et arbitraris me inimicum tuum?
Contra folium quid vento rapitur, ostendis potentiam tuam,
et stipulam seccam persequeris?
Scribis enim contra me amaritudines,
et consumere me vis peccatis adolescentiae meae,
Posuisti in nervo pedem meum,
et observasti omnes semitas meas,
et vestigia pedum meorum considerasti:
qui quasi putredo consumendus sum,
et quasi vestimentum quod comeditur a tinea.
which translates to:
Answer thou me, how great iniquities, and sins I have,
my wicked deeds, and my offences shew thou me.
Why hidest thou thy face and thinkest me thine enemy?
Against the leaf that is violently taken with the wind,
thou shewest thy might, and persecutest dry stubble.
For thou writest bitterness against me,
and wilt consume me with the sins of my youth.
Thou hast put my foot in band,
and hast observed all my paths, and hast considered the steps of my feet.
Who as rottenness am to be consumed, and as a garment
that is eaten of the moth.
--
This arrangement is about 6'30 in length, and has been arranged for piccolo, 2 flutes, and alto flute. The original ending has been altered to resolve in a manner so that this piece can function as a standalone piece.