Composed around 1505 and published in 1547 after the composer’s death, this is a setting of a text from the Old Testament titled Tota pulchra es (‘You are completely beautiful’) by Heinrich Isaac.
He was a contemporary of Josquin, and prolific – his writing can be said to have influenced the music of the Renaissance and early Baroque of Germany. He worked for the Habsburgs in Innsbruck, and then as a singer in Florence at the Cathedral – he would have been there not long after the enormous central dome designed by Brunelleschi was complete.
It is likely that he worked for the Medici family, given that they recommended him to Pope Leo X as a director of choral music for Florence Cathedral, and would have heard him during a Papal Visit to Florence in 1515.
The text comes from a book in the Bible called The Song of Solomon, which perhaps surprisingly is essentially a collection of what could be described as love poetry.
The translation of this piece is:
Tota pulchra es, amica mea,
You are altogether beautiful, my love,
et macula non est in te;
and there is no flaw in you.
favus distillans labia tua;
Your lips distill nectar;
mel et lac sub lingua tua;
honey and milk are under your tongue
odor unguentorum tuorum
the scent of your perfumes
super omnia aromata:
is beyond all spices
jam enim hiems transiit,
For now the winter is past,
imber abiit et recessit.
the rain is over and gone.
Flores apparuerunt;
The flowers have appeared
vineae florentes odorem dederunt,
the flowering vines have given forth their fragrance
et vox turturis audita est in terra nostra:
and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
surge, propera, amica mea:
Arise, my love, my fair one;
veni de Libano, veni, coronaberis.
come from Lebanon, come, you will be crowned.
Notice how he combines simple imitation with chordal patterns to illustrate some basic word-painting, how the verses are split into clear sections with occasional overlap.
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