Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Praetorius, three-voice motet "Preis sei Gott in der Höhe"

The brief Christmas motet (response?) Preis sei Gott in der Höhe (in the collection Musae Sioniae V, 1609) reveals Michael Praetorius in an even more than usually literal frame of mind.

The opening (below, left) shows a common arch shape melody rising from, then returning to, ^5 (of a once-transposed Ionian mode). At the end (below, right), "in der Höhe" ["in the highest"] is achieved by the three female voices, all ascending to their final notes and with a simple, direct ascending line in the topmost voice.