Description
Johannes Ockeghem’s Intemerata Dei mater is a five-voice setting of an obscure Marian text in three parts which pleads for the intercession of the Virgin Mary. It is a tour de force, showcasing Ockeghem’s range of vocal textures, from dense and intricate polyphony to the use of homophony, such as that used to describe ‘dulci quos nectare potas’. Here Ockeghem uses longer note values to allow for a corporate and languid approach to the text, conjuring to the singers’ throats the sensations of the sweet nectar given to humankind.
© Guy James 2021
Intemerata Dei mater, generosa puella,
milia carminibus quam stipant agmina divum,
respice nos tantum si quid jubilando meremur.
Tu scis, virgo decens, quanti discrimen agatur
exulibus, passimque quibus jactemur arenis.
Nec sine te manet ulla quies, spes nulla
laboris, nulla salus patriae, domus aut
potiunda parentis, cui regina praees:
dispensans omnia laeto suscipis ore pios
dulci quos nectare potas, et facis assiduos
epulis accumbere sacris.
Aspiciat facito miseros pietatis ocello, filius
ipsa potes. Fessos hinc arripe sursum diva
virgo manu, tutos et in arce locato.
Undefiled mother of God, noble maiden, around
whom thousands of the heavenly host throng with
their songs, pray look down on us, if in our joyous
praise we earn any merit. You know, beauteous
virgin, how dreadful is the risk run by exiles on the
various shores to which we are cast.
No peace remains without you, no hope of work,
no safety for our country, nor parental home for
our possessions, of which you, queen, are the head:
watching over all things, you lift up the righteous
with a glad smile, feed them with your sweet
nectar, and seat them in constant attendance at the
sacred feast.
We beseech you to make your Son look upon us
compassionately: this is within your power. Snatch
us up away from here with your godly hand,
maiden, weary as we are, and set us down in a
place of safe-keeping.
