In mid-17th-century Rome, Orazio Benevoli was maestro of the Cappella Giulia. He was a contemporary of Carissimi and the master of the four-choir mass but – unlike Venetian split-choir music – the four choirs of Benevoli's masses are each for the same SATB layout, making it some of the most manageable large-scale early music of its time for modern choirs to tackle.
His Missa Maria Prodigio Celeste (also known as the Missa Benevola) deploys his forces in an ever-changing kaleidoscope of sound, and his deployment of the Mula technique (as discussed in Robert Hollingworth and Hugh Keyte's extensive introduction) is a compositional tour-de-force.
The full score is printed by Ingram Spark. Singers may want to use that, or they may prefer to use one of the shorter four choir books, which each include four voice parts and the organ bass line, printed in a larger font, with discounts on large orders. If you intend to use instruments, separate parts can also be produced; as wind and string players prefer different clefs, please discuss these options with your performers before ordering.
Click
HERE to see the first page of the score.
