Tota pulchra es (Jacobus Clemens non Papa)

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• (Posted 2025-04-07)  CPDL #84444: 

Editor: Christopher Shaw (submitted 2025-04-07).   Score information: A4, 7 pages, 114 kB   Copyright: CC BY SA

Edition notes: Please click on the link for preview/playback/PDF download. This edition is prepared from Sacrarum cantionum (1555) and is offered at original pitch for SATTB or transposed down a fourth for ATTTB.

• (Posted 2016-09-26)  CPDL #41254:     

Editor: Mick Swithinbank (submitted 2016-09-26).   Score information: Letter, 8 pages, 76 kB   Copyright: CPDL

Edition notes: Original note values, but transposed down a fourth. Lacks the Quintus part.

General Information

Title: Tota pulchra es
Composer: Jacobus Clemens non Papa
Lyricist:

Number of voices: 5vv   Voicings: SATTB or ATTTB
Genre: Sacred, Motet

Language: Latin
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1555 in Sacrarum cantionum … quinque et sex vocum, liber 2, no. 10
    2nd published: 1559 in Novum et insigne opus musicum (Berg and Neuber), Volume 2, no. 63
Description: This motet is an enigma. The setting is from the Song of Solomon, against which the Quintus part is given an intercession to Saint Margaret (probably either of Antioch, or of Scotland). This intercession is a cantus firmus iterated in the first section, and reversed in the second. The retrograde movement is labelled with a disconcerting quip: "secunda pars supra primam partem vade retro Satanas" which manages not only to prompt associations with the ritual of exorcism but to remind one of the twentieth-century craze, particularly amongst heavy-metal bands, for backmasking.

Original text and translations

Latin text Tota pulchra es, amica mea, et macula non est in te. Veni sponsa, veni chara coronaberis. Surge, propera, amica mea, formosa mea, columba mea, veni, coronaberis. Sancta Margareta, ora pro nobis

English translation 4:7  You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you. Come, my spouse, my dear, come crowned 4:10b  Arise, my love, my fair one; my dove, come, you will be crowned. Saint Margaret, intercede on our behalf

Other versions of Original text and translations may be found at Tota pulchra es, amica mea.