Motet „Sancta Maria succurre miseris” Costanzo Festy i jego melodyczne związki z litanią loretańską

Abstract

It was demonstrated that instead of the four melodic formulas for the Litany of Loreto found in Processionale monasticum the formula extensively used in the Litany was derived from the Litany of the Saints. Associated with the first Marian invocation – Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis from the Litany of Loreto, this formula was often employed in the polyphonic settings of the Magnificat antiphon Sancta Maria, succurre miseris by composers active toward the end of the sixteenth and in the seventeenth century. I argue that the formula from the Litany of the Saints might have been incorporated in the Litany of Loreto earlier. In the version of the Litany of Loreto found in Processionarium published in 1913 this formula appears not with the invocation Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis but with another one – Speculum justitiae, ora pro nobis. Several composers from the first half of the sixteenth century, including Costanzo Festa, might have had access to this version of the Litany of Loreto as they seem to have borrowed some musical material from the version of the Litany of Loreto from Processionarium – including the formula from the Litany of the Saints – for their settings of Sancta Maria succurre miseris.