Free Lead Sheet – Come Sing, Ye Choirs Exultant

Free Lead Sheet – Come Sing, Ye Choirs Exultant

Free Sheet Music for Come Sing, Ye Choirs Exultant by Michael Praetorius and Adam of St. Victor. Enjoy!


Chorales Jubilant


Mason, Jackson, M.A., son of William Mason, Vicar of Normanton, was born at Normanton Vicarage, in the year 1833; and schooled at Trinity College, Cambridge; B.A. 1856. Ordained in the year 1858, he was Curate of Cantley, Yorkshire, 1858-59; Vicar of Pickhill, year 1859-83; and Vicar of Settle from 1883 until his demise, 1889. His Rhythm of Bernard de Morlaix, in English, was produced in 1880. This work also consists of translations of a few Latin songs of praise. To the 1889 Supplemental Songs of Praise to Hymns Ancient & Modern, he donated four translations from the Latin, one from the Greek, and the following original songs of praise:— (1) "Forty days Your seer of old." (Easter.) (2) "O Voice of the Beloved." (Easter.)


In some songbooks, the editors noted that a song of praise's author is not known to them, and so this artificial "individual" entry is used to reflect that fact. Obviously, the songs of praise attributed to "Author Unknown" "Unknown" or "Anonymous" could have been written by many individuals over a span of many centuries.


Adam of Saint Victor was a prolific poet and songwriter of Latin songs of praise and sequences. He is believed to have sparked the development of the poetic and musical repertoire in the Notre Dame School with his influentially rhythmic and imagery-filled poetry.


The 1st reference to him dates from 1098, in the records of Notre Dame Cathedral, where he held office first as a sub-deacon and later as a chanter. He left the cathedral of the Abbey of Saint Victor around the year 1133, possible because of his efforts at imposing the Rule of St Augustine at the cathedral.


Adam probably had contact with a number of significant theologians, poets, and composers of his day, including Peter Abelard and Hugh of St Victor, and he may have taught Albertus Parisiensis.


Adam of St Victor's surviving works are excerpts for liturgical use, not theological treatises.


Around 47 excerpts from Adam survive. In a practice that developed from the 9th century onward, these are poems written to be sung during the mass, between the Alleluia and the gospel reading. The excerpt therefore bridges the Old Testament or epistle readings and the gospel, both literally and musically.


Michael Praetorius (probably February 15, 1571 to February 15, 1621) was a German songwriter, organist, and music theorist. He was one of the most multi-talented composers of his age, being particularly important in the development of musical forms based on Protestant songs of praise, many of which reflect an effort to develop the relationship between Protestants and Catholics.


Praetorius was born Michael Schultze, Schultheis, or Schultz, the youngest male child of a Lutheran pastor, in Creuzburg, in present-day Thuringia. After attending school in Torgau and Zerbst, he learned divinity and philosophy at the University of Frankfurt (Oder). He was expressive in a number of languages. After getting his musical education, from the year 1587 he served as organist at the Marienkirche in Frankfurt. From 1592/3 he worked at the court in Wolfenbüttel, under the employ of Henry Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. He worked in the duke's State Orchestra, first as organist and later (from the year 1604) as Kapellmeister.


His 1st compositions occurred around 1602/3. Their publication basically reflects the care for music at the court of Gröningen. The motets of this collection were the 1st in Germany to make use of the new Italian performance practices; as an outcome, they established him as a skillful composer.


These "contemporary" pieces mark the finale of his middle creative period. The nine (9) parts of his Musae Sioniae and the 1611 produced collections of liturgical song (masses, hymns, Magnificat) follow the German Protestant choir style. With these, at the request of a circle of orthodox Lutherans, he followed the Duchess Elizabeth, who headed the duchy in the duke's absence. In place of famous music, Praetorius was now expected to produce devout music.


When the duke passed away in 1613 and was replaced by Frederick Ulrich, Praetorius retained his employment. From the year 1613 he also worked at the court of John George I, Elector of Saxony in Dresden, where he was responsible for festive song. He was exposed to the latest Italian song, including the polychoral works of the Venetian School. His successive development of the form of the chorale concerto, specifically the polychoral variety, resulted straightly from his familiarity with the song of such Venetians as Giovanni Gabrieli. The solo-voice, polychoral, and instrumental compositions Praetorius composed for these events mark the high duration of his artistic creativity. Until his demise, Praetorius remained at the court in Dresden, where he was declared Kapellmeister von Haus aus and worked with Heinrich Schütz.


Michael Praetorius is said to have passed away on his 50th birthday, in Wolfenbüttel, Germany and is buried in a vault under the organ of the Marienkirche there.


His surname in German appears in numerous forms, including Schultze, Schulte, Schultheiss, Schulz and Schulteis. Praetorius was the traditional Latinized form of this family name, Schultze means "mayor" in German, and a Praetor was a Roman official.


Praetorius was a creative songwriter; his compositions show the influence of Italian composers and his younger modern Heinrich Schütz. His works include the nine (9) volume Musae Sioniae (year 1605 to year 1610), a collection of more than twelve hundred (CA. 1244) chorale and music arrangements; volume eleven (11) of twenty (20) is called Missodia Sionia and consists religious song in Latin for church services for two to eight voices. He wrote numerous other works of the Lutheran church; and Terpsichore, a compendium of more than 300 instrumental dances, which is both his most popularly known work, and his only surviving nonreligious work.


Praetorius was the prominent musical academic of his day and the German writer of music best known to other 17th-century musicians. However, his actual theoretical pieces were relatively few, with nowhere close the long-range influence of other seventeenth century German writers. He composed an encyclopedic record of contemporary tuneful practices.

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