Cozzolani's Christmas/Epiphany motet "Quis audivit unquam tale?" is available for immediate download in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.
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Cozzolani's Christmas/Epiphany motet "Quis audivit unquam tale?" is notable for it’s variety of textures, alternating antiphonal motives and invertible counterpoint and florid declamatory writing, with unexpected extensions of melodic ideas. Word painting for the parallel expressions of ascending and descending and for the contrast of the Kingdom of Heaven and the humble manger make this one of the most immediately attractive of Cozzolani’s works.
In the 1650 publication "Quis audivit unquam tale?" is scored for two sopranos and bass and Magnificat’s recording features Catherine Webster and Jennifer Ellis Kampani along with contralto Elizabeth Anker, who sings some of the bass part at pitch and some transposed up an octave. Magnificat first performed the motet in December 1999 on the San Francisco Early Music Society concert series and more recently on Magnificat's own concert series in 2009.
Magnificat
Warren Stewart, artistic director
Catherine Webster & Jennifer Ellis Kampani, soprano
Elizabeth Anker, bass (alto)
David Tayler, theorbo
Hanneke van Proosdij, organ
lyrics
Text & English Translation
Quis audivit unquam tale?
Quis vidit huic simile?
Obstupesce, cælum; admirare, terra, suspice, orbis universæ.
Deus usque ad carnem descendit, caro usque ad Deum ascendit.
Verbum caro factum est.
Virgo quem genuit adoravit.
O descensum profundissimum, O ascensum sublimissimum!
Iacet super fænum in præsipio qui super tronum gloriæ sedet in cælo; sociatur brutis animalibus, qui colitur ab angelicis choris; obmutescit in sinu matris, qui semper loquitur in gremio Patris; absconditur in vili stabulo, sed proditur radiante sidere; pannis agrestibus involvitur, sed a regibus visitatur; vagitus et lachrimos fundit qui risus est et gaudium Paradisi.
Proh, quanta maiestas, proh, quanta humilitas; intus maiestas, foris humiltas, intus potentia, foris infantia, intus thesauri divinatis, fons pauperies humanitatis, O vere partum, Deo homine dignissimum!
Quis audivit unquam tale?
Quis vidit huic simile?
Nos quoque devoti et humiles adoremus cum pastoribus, laudemus cum angelis, laudemus regem salomonem in diademate carneo quo illum coronavit mater sua, Virgo Maria.
Who has ever heard of such a thing?
Who has ever seen something like this?
Marvel, O heaven; wonder, O earth; behold, O universe.
God has descended to flesh, and flesh has ascended to God.
The Word has become flesh.
The virgin adores Him whom she bore.
O deepest descent, O highest ascent! He lies on hay in a manger Who sits on the throne of glory in heaven; He mingles with rough animals Who is praised by angelic choirs; He is quiet at His mother’s breast Who always speaks in the lap of His father. He is hidden in a lowly stable, but is shown to the world by a shining star; He is wrapped in swaddling clothes but is visited by kings; He cries and weeps Who is the laughter and joy of Paradise.
Behold, what majesty, behold, what humility: majesty inside, humility outside, power inside, infancy outside, the riches of divinity inside, the poverty of humanity outside. O true birth, most worthy of God and man!
Who has ever heard such a thing?
Who has ever seen something like this?
So let us, devoutly and humbly, adore Him with the shepherds, praise Him with the angels, let us praise the Solomonic King in the bodily diadem with which the virgin Mary, His mother, has crowned Him.
credits
from Salmi a Otto Voci (1650),
track released January 6, 2010
Recorded in August, 2000 at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Belvedere CA.
Peter Watchorn, producer
Joel Gordon, engineer
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