With Text Language: Latin. Choral.
Though the text of this motet is found neither in scripture or liturgy, it speaks eloquently of the exile mood of Lent: "Lord, remember the covenant you made with our fathers and deliver us from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt." A note on an 18th century manuscript copy indicates, "this piece, in the opinion of Mr. Byrd himself, is the best he ever composed." The musical rhetoric is shot through with unusual harmonic progressions born out of the opening motive that circles chromatically above and below the keynote. |
