Palestrina’s setting of the Marian hymn, Alma Redemptoris Mater. Traditionally sung at Compline for the first Sunday in Advent, our edition begins with a bass incipit and includes a rehearsal reduction.

Text

Alma Redemptoris Mater,
quae pervia caeli porta manes,
et stella maris,
succurre cadenti surgere qui curat populo:
Tu quae genuisti, natura mirante,
tuum sanctum Genitorem:
Virgo prius ac posterius,
Gabrielis ab ore sumens illud Ave,
peccatorum miserere.

Translation

Loving Mother of the Redeemer,
who remains the accessible Gateway of Heaven,
and Star of the Sea,
Give aid to a falling people
that strives to rise;
O Thou who begot thy holy Creator,
while all nature marvelled,
Virgin before and after
receiving that “Ave” from the mouth of Gabriel,
have mercy on sinners