Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina • Assumpta est Maria

No Renaissance composer and few later ones have been as proficient as Palestrina at writing positive, outward-going, major-key music, and in this context Assumpta est Maria represents one of the most important works of the period.

With these words Peter Philips (director of The Tallis Scholars) mentioned Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s motet Assumpta est Maria for the first time in his notes to the CD by the British vocal ensemble featuring the motets and masses Assumpta est Maria and Sicut lilium. The motet Assumpta est Maria, for six voices, is probably one of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s well-known works, since it has been widely performed and recorded.

Part of this is certainly due to its fame almost since after the composer’s death in 1594. Philips goes on to say that the motet is not better than the composer’s other works (referring particularly to the parody mass based on the motet, comparing it to the mass Benedicta es) but it is better known because at some early stage an editor made an inexpensive edition of the motet and mass and “established a demand which the quality of the music was able to sustain”. This might be an important aspect in establishing the posthumous fame of these works but there also might be other reasons that influenced this which Philips overlooked. One of the features its the “positive, outward-going, major-key” sounding qualities referred by the director of The Tallis Scholars, that was so pleasant to the chapel masters ears. But why was that so… Palestrina was not simply writing this kind of music for his own achievements and, if one looks deep into Palestrinian music, nothing is done by mere simple coincidence. There is a discourse very well planned in each musical composition.

My view of the Assumpta est Maria is that the Marian theme of the text set to music is of capital importance and it influences all major aspects of composition including the “positive, outward-going, major-key” music. The antiphon text in which the motet is based is specifically intended for the feast of the Assumption of Mary into heaven (15 August) and it has a central intention of praising this. So, it is natural that Palestrina would write lively “major-key” music to suit the text.

The two-part motet is set for six voices (SSATTB) and was not published in Palestrina’s lifetime, although it is thought to be one of his last works. It served as a model for a parody mass, also for six voices. There is not much imitation between the voices. Brief points of imitation are interspersed by extended homophonic sections involving all six voices which perfectly suits the text.

One of the features I admire in late-Palestrinian music and which is present in his five but, mostly, his six-part music is what I call (although I’m not certain if it is an original expression) “micro-polychoral music”. Assumpta est Maria exemplifies this very well. Since the motet’s text mentions Mary’s assumption to heaven with the angels praising her, Palestrina divided the six-voice texture into two groups that answer each other in antiphonal way. In my view the upper voices choir represents the angels choir and the lower voices the earthly choir. This is clearly visible in the opening, where the first phrase text “Assumpta est Maria in caelum” is presented in a three-voice high-pitch texture (SST) and then repeated in a lower pitch (ATTB, then with S2). Fewer text repetitions with not many melismas bring the text forward, clearly perceptible even to a distracted listener (one of the main musical focus of the Council of Trent). Palestrina insists in the text “gaudent angeli” with a lot of repetitions in what I see as word-painting of the turba angelorum praising Mary, but even in this crowd confusion one can clearly understand the text.

It is a responsory motet, with the last segment of the first part reappearing in the end of the second part. The opening of the second part is in imitation but Palestrina rapidly abandoned the imitative texture towards an antiphonal exchange between the two groups of voices. Although with not many movement, the discourse gains speed with the textual presentations of Mary’s virtues “quasi aurora consurgens”, “pulchra ut luna” and “electa ut sol”. It is also interesting to not the last text sung “cum Christo regnat in aeternum” which ends both parts.  The text is repeated three times, the first two in an antiphonal way among the two groups of voices and the last time in full six-voice texture leaving the listener with these last words in a full-fledged sonority, “in aeternum”.