Tantum ergo

Information

No. 1 from Three Latin motets. A four parts a cappella setting of the old Tantum ergo text by Thomas Aquinas.

”The Three latin motets were composed for the communion service at Oscarskyrkan in Stockholm. They have also been performed at concerts and at various choral competitions throughout Europe.
The pieces make up a small suite, where the hymns by Thomas Aquinas frame the ancient Ubi caritas as a centerpiece. Beginning with the epic multi-verse setting of Tantum ergo and ending with the dance-like ritornello structure of O sacrum convivium, the suite makes up a nice ternary form with the warm stillness of Ubi caritas in the middle.
While composing, I aimed to evoke the antiquity of the texts by assigning them to mock-plainchant melodies and then treating them in a cantus firmus setting. All three pieces are written in a neo-romantic style.

The Tantum ergo is used in veneration of the holy sacrament and consists of the final three stanzas of a longer text, known as the Pange lingua. The words express the doctrine of bread and wine and its transformation into the blood and body of Christ in the eucharist ceremony.” – Pär Olofsson, musician in Oscarskyrkan, Stockholm.

See also O sacrum convivium, Ubi caritas and Sicut cervus by Pär Olofsson.

Listen to Hjorthagens Kammarkör conducted by Karin Oldgren.