Edition Michael Procter

Renaissance choral music

Editions of sacred renaissance vocal music by the late Michael Procter

Liturgical feast

Editions of sacred
renaissance music by the late Michael Procter.
Revised by Robin Rigby and available from
The Peacock Press
The Peacock Press at
For copies (not digital copies), please contact
Jacks, Pipes and Hammers
telephone +44 1422 882751
Propers of Saints
EMP0964 Croce, Giovanni Laudans exultet gaudio
SATB SATB St Francis (of Assisi) (October 4) £4.00
A version of the piece with the text adjusted to suit Feasts of St Francis (Franciscus).
EMP0544 Regnart, Jacob O decus Trebnitiae
SSATTB Magnificat Antiphon, St. Hedwig (October 15) £4.00
A splendid piece whose scale indicates something of the esteem in which Hedwig - Patrona Silesiae - was held. She was born daughter of Count Berthold III of Andechs in 1174, married Henry I (The Bearded) and thus became Duchess of Silesia and Poland. She founded with her husband the Cistercian nunners of Trebniz, near Wroclaw (Breslau) to which she retired on the death of her husband and son in 1238. She died there in 1243 and was buried near her husband in the Abbey church where they both still lie.
EMP0526 Byrd, William Beati mundo corde
SSATB Communion, All Saints (November 1) £4.00
One of the loveliest of the short pieces in Byrd's great Gradualia. The text is part of the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. This version, a fourth lower than the original, has the catalogue number EMP0526.
EMP0609 Byrd, William Beati mundo corde
SSATB Communion, All Saints (November 1) £4.00
One of the loveliest of the short pieces in Byrd's great Gradualia. The text is part of the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount.This high pitch version, a tone lower than the original, has catalogue number EMP0609.
EMP1043 Croce, Giovanni Laudans exultet gaudio
SATB SATB Introitus, All Saints (November 1) £4.00
Version of EMP0725 adapted for use on the Feast of All Saints.
EMP0550 Lassus, Roland de (Orlandus Lassus, Orlando di Lasso) Beati pauperes spiritu
SATB Motet general, All Saints (November 1) £4.00
A remarkable piece, setting the whole of the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. No liturgical use has been identified for such a piece, but part of the text is set as the Communion for All Saints.
EMP1679 Lassus, Roland de (Orlandus Lassus, Orlando di Lasso) Beati pauperes spiritu
SATB Motet general, All Saints (November 1) £8.00
A set of parts. A remarkable piece, setting the whole of the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. No liturgical use has been identified for such a piece, but part of the text is set as the Communion for All Saints.
EMP0141 Lassus, Roland de (Orlandus Lassus, Orlando di Lasso) Justorum animae
SSATB Offertorium, All Saints (November 1) £3.00
One of Lassus' most sublime pieces. Also the Offertory for Feasts of Martyrs. Here a fourth lower than the original.
EMP1123 Lassus, Roland de (Orlandus Lassus, Orlando di Lasso) Justorum animae
SSATB Offertorium, All Saints (November 1) £3.00
One of Lassus' most sublime pieces. Also the Offertory for Feasts of Martyrs. Here offered a third lower than the high-clef original.
EMP1133 Lassus, Roland de (Orlandus Lassus, Orlando di Lasso) Justorum animae
SSATB Offertorium, All Saints (November 1) £3.00
One of Lassus' most sublime pieces. Also the Offertory for Feasts of Martyrs. Here a tone lower than the original.
EMP0053 Byrd, William Why do I use my paper, ink and pen
SATTB St Edmund Campion (December 6) £4.00
Text by St. Henry Walpole on the death of Campion. Byrd's setting circulated widely in manuscript as a Consort Song (e.g. in the Dow partbooks) but was printed in Psalms, Sonets and Songs (1588) in a vocal version.
EMP0108 Isaac, Heinrich Conceptio Mariae Virginis
SATB Motet general, Conception of BVM (December 8) £2.50
EMP1601 Isaac, Heinrich Conceptio Mariae Virginis with De radice Jesse
SATB Motet general, Conception of BVM (December 8) £4.00
De radice Jesse has the same music as Conceptio Mariae Virginis but a different text - a contrafactum, in fact.
EMP1143 Procter, Michael Von Herzen will ich mich freuen
unison Introitus, Conception of BVM (December 8) £2.75
Another in a growing series of simple settings for liturgical use, originally composed for St Michael, Weingarten. This simple setting includes a congegational antiphon and two Psalm verses to be sung by the Cantor or Schola. (In German)
Votive masses
EMP0073 Anonymous Benedicta es
ATB Sequence, Votive Mass BVM £3.00
This piece is attributed in the manuscript to 'De Anglia'. It is English in style and possibly by Dunstable or Leonel Power.
EMP1031 Byrd, William Alleluia. Ave Maria
SSATB Introitus, Votive Mass BVM £4.00
The Greater Alleluia for the Mass of the Annunciation when this falls in Eastertide. Byrd printed it out of order in the Gradualia but in the form in which it there appears it belongs to the Annunciation. Here at original high-clef pitch.
EMP0036 Byrd, William Diffusa est gratia
SMATB Offertorium, Votive Mass BVM £2.50
This beautiful miniature (lasting about a minute) is found in the first book of Byrd's Gradualia. It is one of the tricky items, being used twice, and although Byrd printed it as the opening section of the long Gradual-Tract group for the Annunciation (in Lent), it may well have been composed initially as the Offertory for the Purification. Byrd failed to provide the piece with a final close, so I give it with an optional cadence.
Liturgia defunctorum
EMP0800 Croce, Giovanni Requiem I
ATTB Mass Ordinary, Requiem £6.00
This is the San Marco setting of the Requiem whose manuscript bears the date 1598.
EMP0801 Croce, Giovanni Requiem II
ATTB Mass Ordinary, Requiem £4.75
This is the second, very simple setting of the Requiem.
EMP0411 de la Rue, Pierre Missa pro Defunctis
SATB Mass Ordinary, Requiem £6.30
The famous Requiem which is scored in abysmally low clefs (including Gamma-3). It is here offered at the correct transposition, which works out at SATB pitch, but is also available at the original pitch.
EMP0583 de la Rue, Pierre Missa pro Defunctis
various Mass Propers, Requiem £6.00
Although the original cleffing clearly indicates transposition, we also offer the work here at original pitch. Some movements are in normal (SATB) clefs, while others use the rare Gamma-3 clef taking the lowest Bass voice down to bottom Bflat.
EMP1258 Gabrieli, Giovanni Confitebor tibi Domine a 13 (1615)
a 13: see description Respond, Office of the Dead £6.30
Scored for three choirs: SATTB SMABa SATB and organ. The third choir is as usual the vocal Capella. The other two choirs can perfectly well be sung - they are both in vocal clefs - but Ch I could be a solo Soprano and four instruments, Ch II a solo baritone and three instruments. Most of the concerted pieces are comparatively short; in this case the final section of the piece is repeated, giving it a length of about 5 minutes.
EMP1275 Gabrieli, Giovanni Exaudi Deus à 12 (1615)
a 12: see description Respond, Office of the Dead £6.00
A setting of the first three verses of Psalm 54 (55). The opening of the Psalm is set as an Offertory during Lent; this large-scale setting was presumably for a non-liturgical performance. Scored for three choirs, SMAT TBaBSb SATB: the third choir is the vocal Capella, Choir I would normally be a solo Tenor with three high instruments, Choir II a solo Tenor with three low instruments.
EMP1681 Gabrieli, Giovanni Exaudi Deus à 12 (1615)
a 12: see description Respond, Office of the Dead £4.75
The vocal score omits the instrumental parts: Cantus, Altus and Octavus from Primus chorus and Quintus, Nonus and Bassus from Secundus chorus.
EMP1682 Gabrieli, Giovanni Exaudi Deus à 12 (1615)
a 12: see description Respond, Office of the Dead £4.00
The Primus chorus with Basso pro organo
EMP1683 Gabrieli, Giovanni Exaudi Deus à 12 (1615)
a 12: see description Respond, Office of the Dead £4.00
The Secundus chorus with Basso pro organo
EMP1684 Gabrieli, Giovanni Exaudi Deus à 12 (1615)
a 12: see description Respond, Office of the Dead £4.00
The Tertius chorus (capella) with Basso pro organo
EMP1685 Gabrieli, Giovanni Exaudi Deus à 12 (1615)
a 12: see description Respond, Office of the Dead £25.50
A set of parts.
EMP1274 Gabrieli, Giovanni Exaudi me Domine a 16 (1615)
Four choirs Respond, Office of the Dead £6.00
A remarkable piece of late Renaissance polychoral writing, with extraordinary use of the madrigalian 'sospiri' figure. Denis Arnold wrote of its 'polyphonic web full of rich dissonance and ending with a grand plagal cadence.' It is a setting of a variant of the 'Libera me', presumably composed for the death of a prominent person, perhaps Doge Grimani (+ 1605). Scored for four vocal choirs, SATB SATB ATTB ATTB but obviously instruments may double or substitute for voices.
EMP1276 Gabrieli, Giovanni Jubilate Deo a 10 (1615)
a 10: see description Respond, Office of the Dead £7.10
This setting from Gabrieli’s posthumous 1615 collection of Symphoniae Sacrae, is – like the piece in the 1613 print - a setting of a composite text which seems to relate to the Nuptial Mass: it is not a straightforward setting of Psalm 100 (the Anglican’s ‘Jubilate’ from Matins.) The print specifies only two voices, Mezzosoprano (high countertenor) and Tenor, with the following instruments: 2 cornetti and bassoon, 5 trombones, and organ. All except the highest cornetto part (even the lowest Bass which descends to low C) are marked 'e Voce si placet', so the piece may be performed with as many singers are available.The overall cleffing is: MT (solo voices); TrSATTTBSb, org. It opens with an (optional) instrumental Sinfonia for all 10 instruments.
EMP1686 Gabrieli, Giovanni Jubilate Deo a 10 (1615)
a 10: see description Respond, Office of the Dead £22.50
A set of parts.
Penitential
EMP1244 Aichinger, Gregor Miserere mei, Deus
SAATB SAATB Psalm-Motet, Penitential £6.00
A setting on the same scale as those of Andrea Gabrieli, through-composed with no chant sections and lasting about 15 minutes.
EMP0408 Anonymous De profundis
ATBaB Psalm, Penitential £4.00
This setting of the penitential psalm has become well-known in the attribution to Josquin which is now widely rejected. No reason to stop singing the piece!
EMP1013 Anonymous De profundis
SATB Psalm, Penitential £4.00
This setting of the penitential psalm has become well-known in the attribution to Josquin which is now widely rejected. No reason to stop singing the piece! This version is transposed up a 4th from the original pitch.
EMP0414 Byrd, William Domine exaudi
SAATB Psalm-Motet, Penitential £4.00
A lengthy setting of the first 2 verses of Ps. 142.
EMP0576 Byrd, William Domine tu jurasti
SATBaB Motet general, Penitential £4.00
Obviously a politically motivated piece - the text is non-liturgical, and the translation in part reads 'deliver us from the hand of Pharaoh...and from bondage under the Egyptians.'