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Artemisia Editions » Catalogue » Convents of Bologna » Banchieri: Three motets (BO-01)

Adriano Banchieri, Bolognese composer, organist, theorist and writer, dedicated his Messa solenne a otto voci of 1599 to Donna Emilia Grassi, choir director, poly-instrumentalist and singer at the Camaldolese convent of Santa Cristina in Bologna. Our edition contains three motets from Banchieri’s collection.

Letamini et exultate, a "Fantasia a 4, per cantare & sonare" is, like many of the pieces in this collection, notated in high clefs, and thus all four parts fall within the range of women’s voices (with the exception of the occasional low d or c, for which ossia alternatives have been provided in the women’s edition). Gaudeamus omnes, scored for five voices, uniquely contrasts four florid parts (SATB), with a tenor cantus firmus. Originally notated in normal clefs, the soprano part falls actually quite low, and so we have made available a transposed version up a fifth to enable an ensemble of women’s voice to perform it. Beata es tu, again printed in high clefs, is an antiphonal Concerto à 8 for a high and a low choir. The first choir fits well for women’s voices, but the bass part of the second is too low for a woman to sing. A possible performance by a female ensemble might thus foresee voices on all of the parts in the high choir, in contrast to the second low choir represented by a soloist on the first voice and instruments (for example viols or organ) playing the other three parts.