96: Sicut Cervus

 These first few days after Easter, the plan isn’t so much to deep analysis or explore some really obscure, challenging concept—believe me, those will be back soon—but instead, to just take a few days to breathe, relax, and enjoy the great music this season has to offer. Today’s selection, then, is one of my favorite examples of Renaissance polyphony, by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, one of the greatest Italian composers of the era. (Coincidentally, one of his students was the author of the piece mentioned in Good Friday’s article last week, the Miserere.)

Having covered the student’s work on Friday, today we turn to Saturday night and one of the many Psalms heard during that liturgy. (It’s my favorite liturgy of the whole year, and I haven’t missed it in 10 years, so naturally, Saturday’s article was a musical overview of it.) In particular, we look to Palestrina for his setting of Psalm 42, the Psalm that follows the seventh (yes, seventh!) reading on Holy Saturday. In English, it begins “Like a deer that longs for running streams.” In Latin, then, it begins (and is titled) “Sicut cervus” – just “Like a deer”, sometimes popularly just “Sicut” or “the Sicut”; anyone who knows Renaissance polyphony will know what you mean.

  The goal today, then, as it has been for a few days now, is just to share a few great recordings I’ve found on the internet. There is much more that can be said about this, and about the musical tradition that gave us Palestrina—and believe me, I will say all those things—but for now, just relax and listen. 


1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQsl5A0ndKE&list=RDTQsl5A0ndKE&start_radio=1

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdv9vmGo4EE&list=RDPdv9vmGo4EE&start_radio=1

3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4GrSFctB1s&list=RDA4GrSFctB1s&start_radio=1

4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yd5EE0hAB8&list=RD0yd5EE0hAB8&start_radio=1

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fhHkzzfdv8&list=RD8fhHkzzfdv8&start_radio=1

6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW0opszLqTU&list=RDWW0opszLqTU&start_radio=1


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