Here is another big win for the YouTube suggestion algorithm, a motet by Palestrina which has the first two verses of the epistle of Corpus Christi (1 Corinthians 11, 23-29) as its text. For simplicity’s sake, I have titled this post “for Corpus Christi”. But our friend Thomas Neal, who is an expert on Palestrina, tells me that the exact occasion for which it was composed is unknown; it may have been written for Holy Thursday instead.
“Brethren: I indeed have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and giving thanks, broke it, and said, ‘Take ye, and eat: this is my body, which shall be delivered for you: this do for the commemoration of me.’”
The motet is preserved in only one manuscript (preserved in the archives of the Cappella Giulia in the Vatican), which dates to around 1584, and contains many other pieces copied out in Palestrina’s own hand. He later used it as the basis of a very beautiful Mass for eight voices, which is therefore called the Missa Fratres, ego enim accepi, published posthumously in 1601.
