Ave Verum Corpus (Mozart)

Choral

Composer:		Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Voicing:		SATB and Accompaniment
Words:		14th century attributed to Pope Innocent VI

Version 1

Ave verum corpus natum ex Maria Virgine,
vere passum, immolatum in cruce pro homine,
cujus latus perforatum vero fluxit et sanguine,
esto nobis praegustatum mortis in examine.
O clemens, O pie, O dulcis Jesu, Fili Mariae.

Version 2

Jesu, Word of God Incarnate, of the virgin Mary born,
On the cross thy sacred body for us men with nails was torn
Cleanse us, by thy blood and water Streaming from thy pierced side;
Feed us with thy body broken, Now in death's agony!
O Jesu, hear us Son of Mary

Version 3

Jesu, Lamb of God, Redeemer, born the virgin Mary's Son,
who upon the cross a victim hast man's salvation won.
From whose side, which man had pierced flow'd the water and the blood,
by thy sacred body broken, Be in life and death our food.
O Jesu, be in life and death our food

View or download the score

Academia Musici Novi

Choir and Symphony Orchestra of the Bayerischer Rundfunk

Kings College Choir, Cambridge

National Taiwan University Chorus

Mozart's Ave verum corpus

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's setting of Ave verum corpus (K. 618) was written for Anton Stoll (a friend of his and Haydn's) who was musical co-ordinator in the parish of Baden, near Vienna. It was composed to celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi and the autograph is dated 17 June 1791. It is only forty-six bars long and is scored for choir, stringed instruments, and organ. Mozart''s manuscript itself contains minimal directions, with only a single sotto voce at the beginning.

Mozart composed this motet while in the middle of writing his opera Die Zauberflöte, and while visiting his wife Constanze, who was pregnant with their sixth child and staying in a spa near Baden. It was less than six months before Mozart's death.

Ave verum corpus is a short Eucharistic hymn dating from the 14th century and attributed to Pope Innocent VI (d. 1362), which has been set to music by various composers. During the Middle Ages it was sung at the elevation of the host during the consecration. It was also used frequently during Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

The hymn's title means "Hail, true body", and is based on a poem deriving from a 14th-century manuscript from the Abbey of Reichenau, Lake Constance. The poem is a meditation on the Catholic belief in Jesus's Real Presence in the sacrament of the Eucharist, and ties it to Catholic ideas on the redemptive meaning of suffering in the life of all believers.

One text is in Latin, and reads:

  Ave verum corpus natum
  de Maria Virgine,
  vere passum, immolatum
  in cruce pro homine,
  cuius latus perforatum
  unda fluxit et sanguine,
  esto nobis praegustatum
  in mortis examine.

A translation into English is:

  Hail the true body,
  Born of the Virgin Mary,
  Truly suffered, sacrificed
  On the Cross for mankind,
  Whose pierced side
  Flowed with water and blood,
  Let it be for us, in consideration,
  A foretaste of death.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Metasyntactic variable".

Comments

Please make comment on the score and music here.

Keep to the topic of the music on this page. Be polite, comments are moderated
Tell us where you have used this music and if your performance is published on the internet, please put a link to it in the website field
Give performance advice/suggestions
Ask others questions about performance techniques
Please do not make requests for music on this page
Your email address is not published

reviews

Main Sponsor

Our sponsors

Other Choral Music