Grant Eagleson

Conducting
Ave Verum Corpus Assignment

Mozart’s motet Ave Verum Corpus was written in 1791, for the feast of Corpus Christi;

this day celebrates the presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, observed by those of the

Roman Catholic faith. The language is of vital importance in this work, and keeping the original

texts reflect the Roman Catholic ideals of the text (the original text is a 14th century Latin hymn).

Completed six months before his death, Mozart previews elements of his Requiem in the work.

English translation of the motet (Mozart omitted the last three lines of the hymn):

Hail, true Body, born

of the Virgin Mary,
having truly suffered, sacrificed
on the cross for mankind,
from whose pierced side
water and blood flowed:
Be for us a foretaste [of the Heavenly banquet]
in the trial of death!

The first version I viewed was from the King’s College Choir. It was a beautiful and mostly

flawless performance. The piece moved quicker than I would have expected, ensuring the

performance was not melodramatic, but taking away the effect of many carefully written moving

lines. There was not much space for expression, the choir was very capable but young, and I

would assume much of the musical ideas come from the conductor, because their musical

instincts would not be as developed as an older choir of the same standard. In general the

conductor’s pattern was very gentle, and when there were larger gestures they were effective.

He had an interesting tendency to point both of his fingers, which drove the music but also

seemed a little too blunt. The next performance viewed was led by Leonard Bernstein, and had
a wonderfully tender quality to it. The work benefited from the ensemble playing it, with the

signature warmth and intimacy associated with German orchestras. Bernstein’s pattern is

constantly varying, his motions reflecting the music and the text to an extreme. This version is

significantly slower, and I would normally take issue with it but given the solemn and holy nature

of the text I think it works well. I saw another performance from the Bow Valley chorus with very

interesting conducting. His pattern was generally very high and large, and therefore visible to

the ensemble. Large sweeping gestures were used during most moving lines, and while one

could say it was due to the nature of the music, I found it slightly over the top. The choir was

excellent, maybe slight balance problems with the sopranos but overall it was a beautiful

performance. It is hard to take real issue with the conducting when the final product is as

wonderful as this. The fourth performance was from the St. Stephen’s Cathedral choir. The

conductor went through most of the piece with a two pattern, which gave the work a certain life

and momentum that was absent in most of the previous examples. His motions led to wide

dynamic contrasts from the ensemble, shaping and bending the music at will. There was

obviously preparedness of the highest level, and the conductor showed that he was aware of

the musical ideas in every bar. He also paid equal attention to both the choir and the orchestra,

something that seemed absent in other versions, with conductors seeing the strings as

accompaniment rather than equal. Overall, this was my favorite version. The last version was

performed by the Virginia Choristers. It was a talented young choir, but there were issues with

the conducting which meant the group could not be at their best. Her pattern was strange, and

seemed to indicate pauses at the end of every bar. There was no reason for the choir to

breathe that frequently, and it just stopped any momentum the music had. Beat three of her

pattern constantly went behind her back, which was equally impressive and confusing. With a

lack of a clear ictus, a younger group will struggle to stay in time and that is what happened.

This is a timeless piece of choral music that deserves only the best interpretations.