This is one of Palestrina’s most unusual motets. In fact, when I first played the work, I thought there had to be mistakes in the printed score. Some of the harmonies were so strange and a portion of the piece went so low – there had to be something wrong. Then I noticed the corresponding text, and, of course, it all made sense. The motet begins beautifully, hauntingly, as it meditates of the words, “Peccantem me quotidie, et non poenitentem” (“I have been sinning every day, without repentance.”) Suddenly, the music shifts: “timor mortis conturbat me” (“and now the fear of death torments me.”) Here Palestrina uses the strangest progression of chords I have ever heard in his music. It seems confused, going nowhere, full of turmoil. What a wonderful setting of the text! Then, at the words “quia in inferno nulla est redemption” (“because in Hell there is no redemption”) Palestrina takes the voices to their lowest regions – it is the lowest passage I know in all of Palestrina’s music. Finally, the chorus implores forgiveness (“Miserere”), and during the last plaintive measures we hear an occasional major chord, hinting at an ultimate redemption.

– Dennis Keene, Artistic Director

PALESTRINA Peccantem me quotidie

Voices of Ascension
Dennis Keene, Artistic Director

from the Delos recording Prince of Music ℗ 1999 Delos
The singers in this performance are represented by the American Guild of Musical Artists, AFL-CIO.