Editor’s Note

Historical monuments and scholarly sets of collected works are the sources of most of the motets in The Renaissance Singer, which retains the ficta, text underlay and other editorial choices of those editions. The motets of Lassus and Morley, however, are based upon primary sources. Diffusa est gratia of Nanino has been reconstructed by comparing several tertiary sources. Details of the source and original liturgical use follow each motet. The clefs, time signatures and note values of today (a quarter-note or a dotted quarter-note as the unit of beat) replace the original notation. Details precede each motet.

The keyboard reductions are editorial throughout, except for the Tallis If ye love me, which is original. Occasional dynamic signs, echo effects and breathing indications are also included in the reductions. The new translations, made for singing, conform without exception to the rhythm of the original texts. Sometimes considerable departure form a familiar English version was required. A more literal translation, not for singing, was therefore included, and would be the suitable one to print in a program when the Latin text is sung. The tonic accents are marked in the complete version of the text given before each motet. And in the Praetorius In natali Domini the quality of the German e and o vowels is also marked by a grave accent for the open form and an acute accent for the closed. The marks should, of course, not be reproduced when the texts are printed.

An essay by Joseph Dyer, dealing with some important and practical aspects of Renaissance performance practice, has been written especially for this volume. As a musicologist he specializes in the Middle Ages; as an organist and performer on various Renaissance wind instruments he takes a lively interest in the historical period represented in this collection.

Thomas Dunn