Angelus Ad Pastores Ait, a paraphrase of a Biblical text set as a motet by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, is taken from where the angels appear to the shepherds in the field, telling them that Christ has been born. This passage has been set by a number of composers, but one does not need to know the text to enjoy the remarkable five-part imitative counterpoint with alternate harmonic sections typical of Sweelinck. Sweelinck straddles the line (both chronologically and stylistically) between the Renaissance and the Baroque - and both styles can be heard in single pieces of his music.

 

Angelus Ad Pastores Ait for brass sextet is unpublished and available for $18.00 for hard copy,                               or $15.00 for the pdfs

 

It is also available as a brass quintet, found on my Brass Quintets page.

 

Angelus Ad Pastores Ait is not recorded as a sextet, and the mP3 is a FINALE MIDI audio extract (not a great sound, but you get the idea of what the piece sounds like — and for some reason, I couldn’t get the “ritard” function to work on making this extraction. There should be a dramatic ritard at the end).