Johann Rosenmüller: Ad pugnas ad bella

for Soprano Solo, Trumpet [in D], 2 Violins, 2 Violas, Bassoon, & Organ

Full Score, Instrumental Parts, & Keyboard Reduction

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£10.00

Purchase together with O felicissimus Paradysi aspectus for £18.00 using the Rosenmüller Motet Bundle button below.

Nearly all of Rosenmüller’s extant vocal music is sacred. The manuscript for the present cantata is housed at the Berlin State Library in a collection containing thirty-five solo cantatas for a variety of voice types and scorings. (The thirty-five cantatas in this manuscript collection contain another cantata with identical scoring: O felicissimus Paradysi aspectus—also edited by the undersigned and published by Septenary Editions, catalogue number SE4-009). This set of cantatas is part of the Bokemeyer Collection, an important collection of approximately 1,800 scores copied mainly in the 1690s by composer Georg Österreich. While it is likely that this work, along with most of his Latin-texted pieces, was composed while he was in Venice, Rosenmüller sent manuscripts back to Germany, a fact that explains it’s appearance, along with that of his other vocal music, in a German source.

Rosenmüller’s solo cantatas, which are comprised of Latin devotional prose and poetry, are modeled on the secular cantatas of composers such as Carissimi and Cesti, with the present work being no exception. Structurally, Italian influence is evident here both with the presence of a brief sinfonia followed by aria and recitativo sections/movements as well as with the use of two instrumental ritornelli in the central movement/section. Additionally, the inclusion and treatment of the trumpet here is Italianate. The trumpet’s range spans from the 6th to 13th partial of the harmonic series (A4–B5), and in the source, the scribe wrote the part at concert pitch; such notation is more common in Italy than in Germany, where trumpets were often notated as transposed instruments.