Exsultate Deo

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina's Exsultate Deo.

Latin Text

Exsultate Deo adjutori nostro ; jubilate Deo Jacob. Sumite psalmum, et date tympanum ; psalterium jucundum cum cithara. Buccinate in neomenia tuba, in insigni die solemnitatis vestræ: quia præceptum in Israël est, et judicium Deo Jacob.

Translation

Take the psalm, bring hither the tabret : the merry harp with the lute. Blow up the trumpet in the new-moon : even in the time appointed, and upon our solemn feast-day. For this was made a statute for Israel : and a law of the God of Jacob.

Sung by 'Voices of Ascension.'

Biography

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (between 3 February 1525 and 2 February 1526 – 2 February 1594) was an Italian composer of late Renaissance music. The central representative of the Roman School, with Orlande de Lassus and Tomás Luis de Victoria, Palestrina is considered the leading composer of late 16th-century Europe.

Primarily known for his masses and motets, which number over 105 and 250 respectively, Palestrina had a long-lasting influence on the development of church and secular music in Europe, especially on the development of counterpoint. According to Grove Music Online, Palestrina's "success in reconciling the functional and aesthetic aims of Catholic church music in the post-Tridentine period earned him an enduring reputation as the ideal Catholic composer, as well as giving his style (or, more precisely, later generations' selective view of it) an iconic stature as a model of perfect achievement."