Missa pro Defunctis: Sicut Cervus (An alternate Tract)

From Giovanni Viannini, a recording of Sicut Cervus, which is an alternate Tract for the Mass for the Dead (although I'm actually not sure if this is the form used, or if there was another). There are several online references to this (although it is not included in the Wikimedia article on the Requiem Mass); this site says:

The text of Sicut cervus directly quotes the Psalm text in its imagery: "As the deer thirsts for the waters, so my soul longs for Thee, O God!" The Psalmist's words remain completely pertinent to the Christian adaptation, as a soul cries over its own complete emptiness and parched nature without the nourishment of water. Its very music almost embodies this thirst, as it alternates between passages of more melodically bound stasis (known within the traditions of chanted psalmody) and more passionate melismas that might attempt to represent the soul's desire. Both music and text add a level of richness to an extremely solemn moment, one of two every year when new souls may be brought into the church. Pointedly, one other use that the medieval church made of Sicut cervus was during the Requiem or funeral Mass, when the soul proceeded from earth to its Promised Land.

And several composers - Ockeghem, Josquin, and Brahms, for three - have included the Sicut Cervus in their own Requiems, so I include it here as well.



The words come from Psalm 42 (below is the Coverdale translation):

Sicut cervus desiderat ad fontes aquarum, ita desiderat anima mea ad te, Deus.
Sitivit anima mea ad Deum, Deum vivum; quando veniam et apparebo ante faciem Dei?
Fuerunt mihi lacrimae meae panis die ac nocte, dum dicitur mihi quotidie: "Ubi est Deus tuus?"Like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks :
so longeth my soul after thee, O God.
My soul is athirst for God, yea, even for the living God :
when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?
My tears have been my meat day and night :
while they daily say unto me, Where is now thy God?

Here are links to posts on this blog, for all the movements of the Requiem mass:

• Missa pro Defunctis: Requiem aeternam (Introitus)
• Missa pro Defunctis: Kyrie Eleison (Kyrie from the Mass for the Dead)
• Missa pro Defunctis: Requiem aeternam (Graduale)
• Missa pro Defunctis: Absolve, Domine (Tractus)
• Missa pro Defunctis: Sicut Cervus (An alternate Tract)
• Missa pro Defunctis: Dies irae (Sequentia)
• Missa pro Defunctis: Domine Jesu Christe (Offertorium)
• Missa pro Defunctis: Sanctus and Agnus Dei
• Missa pro Defunctis: Communio
• Missa pro Defunctis: Libera Me
• Missa pro defunctis: In Paradisum