Notes About The Music

3rd Sunday after Easter 2025

Processional hymn: Be Joyful Mary, Heavenly Queen, 847
Recessional hymn: Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain, 844
Kyriale: Mass I, 696; Credo III, 776 

Marian Antiphon: Regina Cœli, Antonio Lotti (1667–1740)
Communion Motet: Cantate Domino, Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni

The motet Cantate Domino is a setting of Psalm 149:1–2 by Baroque Italian composer Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni. O sing unto the Lord a new song: let the congregation of saints praise him. Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: and let the children of Sion be joyful in their King. Pitoni’s work, like much of late Baroque music, is tightly structured in small phrases with two main sections and follows the general format of “A-B-A.”, also called ternary form. This form allows for restating of the initial text and for contrast in dynamic (how strong or quiet the music becomes). 

Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni (1657–1743) was an Italian vocalist, organist and composer. He studied voice from the age of five and became a maestro di cappella (choirmaster) at Santa Maria Maggiore, Monterotondo, a historic church near Rome by sixteen. Pitoni held director positions at many parishes in Rome and was a prominent church musician during the late Baroque era.