Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: Aria ‘Laudate Dominum’ from the Versperae solennes de confessore KV 339 (1780)

Mozart Amadé Mozart

Born 27 January 1756 in Salzburg,
died 5 December 1791 in Vienna.

First performance of the Vesperae solennes de confessore KV 339:

August 1780 in Salzburg Cathedral


Aristotle conceives of God as an unmoved mover. However, not in such a way that God now moves everything earthly from the outside (the orbiting of the stars and the life and death of people), for then God himself would be interlocked with the earthly. The immovable, the mobile, moves ‘by being desired’ (Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book XII, 1072 3). The relationship between the most perfect and the mundane is to be thought of as a desired, erotic one.


Mozart comes very close to this philosophical idea musically in his Laudatum Dominum. One could even say that the relationship between God and man is characterised by musical tenderness.
Mozart composed his Laudatum Dominum in August 1780 for the Vespers liturgy (with its 5 psalms and the Magnificat), i.e. for the evening Liturgy of the Hours of the Catholic Church on the eve of the feast of a saintly confessor. Psalm 117 (116 Vulgate) is the last of the 5 psalms of the Vespers service. Mozart chooses an old liturgical form: the responsorial form with lead singer and responding choir.

Listen here (ca. 5 Min)!

Listening companion:

 

The string orchestra begins with this unearthly beautiful F major serenade melody, which is accompanied only quietly by lute-like chords (in the second violins together with the bass) and is occasionally underpinned by a softly emerging bassoon.

The solo soprano then takes over the melody, which is rhythmically reminiscent of the Siciliano tradition, and continues it independently.
‘Laudate’ is set to music as an ascending, laudatory melody.

‘omnes populi’ does not sound like an appeal to all peoples, but is a gentle, almost self-evident plea to surrender to desire.

‘Misericordia": the music also corresponds to the meaning of the word: “having a heart for those who are in misery”.

‘Veritas Domini": marvellous how the truth of God is revealed in the melody that moves downwards, like a tender God who is forever inclined towards a world in misery.

Finally, the choir responds to the cantor with the ‘Gloria patri...’ and adopts the same melody of the soprano, but simplifies it for the general public.

(Introduction)







Laudate Dominum omnes gentes



Laudate eum


omnes populi



Quoniam confirmata est super nos misericordia eius:


et veritas Domini manet in aeternum.



Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui sancto 
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc et semper 
Et in saecula saeculorum. 
Amen.

(Introduction)







Praise the Lord, all nations;



Praise Him,


all people.



For He has bestowed 
His mercy upon us,


And the truth of the Lord endures forever.



Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and forever, 
and for generations of
generations. Amen.

Note for music lovers:

Website: Unknown Violin Concertos