Video Information

• Choir: St Peter's Singers of Leeds
• Piece: Nolo mortem peccatoris
• Composer:  Thomas Morley
• Conductor:  Simon Lindley
• Voices:  SATB
• Genres: A cappella, Classical, Renaissance
• This lovely Lententide motet was performed at the Parish Church of St Michael and All Angels, Thornhill, West Yorkshire, as part of the Singers' recital of Passiontide Polyphony and organ solos given on Sunday 2nd April 2017. Dr Simon Lindley, the choir...  moreThis lovely Lententide motet was performed at the Parish Church of St Michael and All Angels, Thornhill, West Yorkshire, as part of the Singers' recital of Passiontide Polyphony and organ solos given on Sunday 2nd April 2017. Dr Simon Lindley, the choir's Music Director since its foundation in 1977, directed and also played the organ solos.
  
  Thomas Morley
  1557/8-1602
  Nolo mortem peccatoris
  
  Nolo mortem peccatoris; haec sunt verba Salvatoris.[I desire not the death of a sinner; these are the words of the Saviour.]
  Father, I am thine only Son, sent down from heav’n mankind to save.Father, all things fulfilled and done according to thy will, I have.Father, my will now all is this: Nolo mortem peccatoris.Father, behold my painful smart, taken for man on ev’ry side;Ev'n from my birth to death most tart, no kind of pain I have denied,but suffered all, and all for this: Nolo mortem peccatoris.
  
  Thomas Morley’s contribution to British music was inestimable and included the publication of England’s first musical encyclopaedia 'A plaine and easie introduction to Practicall Musick' of 1597. The text of Nolo mortem peccatoris is believed to come from a multi-stanza old Carol. Technically, this is a macaronic motet, with Latin deployed alongside the vernacular in a manner similar to 'In dulci iubilo', though of course, within an entirely more subdued ambience. The work first appeared in print in 1616, as part of Tristitia Remedium produced by Thomas Myrell of Chichester.
  
  More information about St Peter's Singers, including details of upcoming concerts, recitals and liturgical performances, may be found at our website www.stpeters-singers.org.uk or on our Facebook page 'St Peter's Singers of Leeds'  less