This past Sunday, the schola in which I sing provided the communion antiphon from the Gregorian books, Optimam Partem. I just love this chant because it tells such a beautiful story of the lesson of Mary and Martha (Gospel reading) in song. Following this chant, we sang the motet with the same text name by William Byrd – which is in a minor key and doesn’t borrow much from the chant, but is extraordinarily beautiful.
This morning I was stunned to find a live recording of this very motet by the Cantores Ecclesia, a choir that specializes in Byrd. The choir takes this motet at half the tempo we took it, which changes the sensibility of the piece dramatically. Have a listen. I do not know which is “correct”; in fact, there is probably no answer to that, and therein we find yet another magnificent thing about this music.