Hodie beata Virgo Maria (SSAA)

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The aged Simeon takes the new-born Jesus in his arms, recognises his significance and celebrates this moment in a paean of praise as the fulfilment of his life. In Matsushita’s mot et this song of praise, the “nunc dimittis”, stands at the centre of the composition. Here, the triad of C–F sharp–G, used for the word “hodie – today” at the beginning, symbolically combines with a Gregorian-like motif, revolving around the central note of B flat in whole-tone movement, and which is used to represent the Virgin Mary. The work ends with a mystical wash of sound, a whole-tone cluster which emerges from the aleatorically repeated basic motifs of the work, and fades away to nothing. Show more