motet notes - Purcell

The composition date and origins of this brief motet by Henry Purcell (1659-1695) are unknown. While the Alleluia text is fitting for the Last Sunday in Epiphany, this minor mode setting with harmonies that collide with one another in intense and surprising dissonances belie its seemingly joyful character. The harmonically ambiguous ending with no third prepares us for the Lenten season. 

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