☰ Ostinato

Until now, anyone looking for music on the theme of Pentecost and the Holy Spirit for church services and concerts usually had to do so in larger collections that cover the entire church year or parts of it. With Music for the Spirit, there is now a choirbook specifically for the feast of Pentecost for the first time, closing a gap for an important feast of the Catholic, Protestant, and Anglican churches.

Over 500 years of choral music from Renaissance to the modern age are covered here with compositions from the German-, English-, Italian- and French-speaking regions. Almost all the great composers of European sacred music are represented, from Palestrina over Byrd, Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Gounod, and Bruckner to Reger, Parry, Stanford, and Distler. With the chronological order, the development of the genre of the Pentecost motet and sacred choral music in general can be traced easily.

All pieces can be performed by mixed choir a cappella or with organ accompaniment. In some cases, the accompaniment has been supplemented or arranged by the editor Stephen Harrap, in individual cases also the choral parts, e.g. when the original was composed for male voices only. The scoring ranges from three to eight voices while the length and difficulty of the pieces likewise cover a broad range for a wide variety of choirs and ensembles.

01. Anonymus: Alta Trinità beata (Laudario di Cortona, c. 1270)
02. Johann Walter: Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist
03. Johann Walter: Komm, Heiliger Geist (Kloster Ebersberg, c. 1480)
04. Christopher Tye: O Holy Spirit, Lord of grace (Charles Coffin/John Chandler)
05. Thomas Tallis: If ye love me, keep my commandments (Johannes 14,15–17)
06. Thomas Tallis: O Lord, give thy Holy Spirit (Lidley’s Prayers, 1566)
07. Andrea Gabrieli: Hodie completi sunt
08. Tomás Luis de Victoria: In Pentecoste (Veni Creator Spiritus) (Rabanus Maurus)
09. Orlando di Lasso: Tibi laus, tibi gloria
10. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Veni Creator Spiritus
11. Tomás Luis de Victoria: Veni Sancte Spiritus (Stephen Langton)
12. Giovanni Croce: Hodie completi sunt dies Pentecostes
13. William Byrd: Alleluia - Emitte Spiritum tuum
14. William Byrd: Confirma hoc Deus (Psalm 67,29b–30)
15. Melchior Vulpius: Spiritus Sancti gratia
16. Peter Philips: Loquebantur variis linguis
17. Orlando Gibbons: Come, Holy Ghost, the Maker, come (George Wither)
18. Johannes Eccard: Der Heilig Geist vom Himmel kam
19. Thomas Tomkins: God, which as upon this day
20. Johann Sebastian Bach: Nun werter Geist, ich folge dir BWV 175/6 (Johann Rist)
21. Johann Sebastian Bach: Ermuntre dich, mein schwacher Geist BWV 248/12 (Johann Rist)
22. Georg Philipp Telemann: Komm, Heiliger Geist, Tröster Gott (Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock)
23. William Boyce: Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire (John Cosin)
24. Wolfang Amadeus Mozart: Veni Sancte Spiritus KV 47
25. Franz Schubert: Geist der Wahrheit (Albert Knapp)
26. Thomas Clark: God, who at this time
27. Thomas Attwood: Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire (John Cosin)
28. Johannes Brahms: Schaffe in mir, Gott, ein rein Herz Op. 29/2 (Psalm 51,12–14)
29. William Henry Monk: Abide with me (Henry Francis Lyte)
30. Moritz Hauptmann: Meine Seel ist stille zu Gott
31. César Franck: Veni Creator Spiritus
32. Charles Gounod: Veni Creator Spiritus
33. Anton Bruckner: Os justi (Graduale) (Psalm 36,30–31)
34. Ralph Vaughan Williams: Come down, o Love divine (Bianco da Siena/Richard F. Littledale)
35. Edvard Grieg: Pinsesalme (from Peer Gynt) (Henrik Ibsen)
36. Henry Walford Davies: God be in my head (Horae beatae Maria Virginis, 1514)
37. Max Reger: And there appeared unto the Apostles
38. Max Reger: Morgengesang Op. 138/2 (Johannes Zwick)
39. Charles Wood: O Thou, the central orb (Henry Ramsden Bramley)
40. Charles Hubert Hastings Parry: My soul, there is a country (Henry Vaughan)
41. Charles Villiers Stanford: O Holy Spirit, Lord of grace (Charles Coffin/John Chandler)
42. Edward Bairstow: Let all mortal flesh keep silence (Jakobusliturgie | Liturgy of St. James)
43. Hugo Distler: Komm, heilger Geist, o Schöpfer du Op. 5/23 (nach | based on Angelus Silesius)
44. Hugo Distler: Komm, Heilger Geist, Herre Gott Op. 6/2 (Kloster Ebersberg, c. 1480)
45. Johann Nepomuk David: Komm, Gott Schöpfer, Heiliger Geist Op. 60/5 (Psalm 118,27; Römer 5,5)
46. Stephen Harrap: Veni Creator Spiritus (John Donne)
47. Stephen Harrap: Veni Sancte Spiritus