# Favorite "et vitam venturi"



## jcn (Apr 3, 2013)

You know how the last line of the Credo is "et vitam venturi saeculi amen". In a lot of masses, they repeat the line over and over again, a lot of times in a fugal form, and it tends to be really powerful. What is your favorite setting of that line?


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## Xaltotun (Sep 3, 2010)

Ones that spring to mind immediately are Liszt's "Hungarian Coronation Mass", with its austere, unaccompanied Credo. The ending is very subdued, yet full of silent power and faith. Also I seem to remember liking this particular line in Schubert's mass #5... or was it #6? There was something ominous in it... like a feeling that the inevitable death would come quite soon!


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

If I say the _Missa_, do I even have to specify which one? :lol:


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## jcn (Apr 3, 2013)

Xaltotun said:


> Ones that spring to mind immediately are Liszt's "Hungarian Coronation Mass", with its austere, unaccompanied Credo. The ending is very subdued, yet full of silent power and faith. Also I seem to remember liking this particular line in Schubert's mass #5... or was it #6? There was something ominous in it... like a feeling that the inevitable death would come quite soon!


You might be referring to #6 since it's the only one of those two masses where that line is presented in a fugal form.


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## jcn (Apr 3, 2013)

KenOC said:


> If I say the _Missa_, do I even have to specify which one? :lol:


Let me guess, you're referring to Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. The et vitam fugue is very memorable on that piece.


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## Tasto solo (Sep 7, 2015)

The most accomplished composer of masses in the first half of the 18th Century, Jan Dismas Zelenka often goes to town on that part of the text (perhaps he even set the trend of doing this). His 2 best "et Vitam Venturi"s would be as follows:

Missa dei Patris. 



 To appreciate fully you have to listen from the Et Resurrexit - The music starts in a major key and is dominated by a fanfare like ritornello. At the word "mortuorum", the music becomes subdued and then the fanfare theme is repeated in the minor key. However, rather than completing itself the choir butts in with "et Vitam Venturi" in the form of a bold fugue. This fugue might seem a little old-fashioned were it not for the fact that Zelenka weaves the original ritornello from the Et Resurrexit, in its minor version, including great swoops from the strings, behind the fugue. In the end it seems there is a fight between the old-fashioned fugue and the modern concertante style. It is a work of genius.

Missa Votiva. 



 This mass was written after Zelenka recovered from a serious illness and the exuberance of the whole work gives the impression he feels bloody lucky to have survived! I do feel he allows himself to do a bit of word painting with "et Vitam Venturi" in this work, crafting a light and bouncy fugue subject that practically laughs "I'm am alive!". It is also worth noting that this fugue, as in the one from the Missa Dei Patris is partly accompanied by ritornello material from the Et Resurrexit - Zelenka was really a master in doing this.

He also wrote great triple fugues for "et Vitam Venturi" in the Missa Sanctissimae Trinitatis (with inversion of the subject halfway through!) and Missa Judica Me (sadly not yet recorded by available as a synthesized file at: http://jdzelenka.net/Public/ZWV 2/ZWV 2 mp3s/ )


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