Caligaverunt oculi mei

Philippe Rogier was a Spanish composer of sacred music who spent much of his career in the Spanish Netherlands. His motets are a rich contribution to the repertory of Counter-Reformation polyphony. Caligaverunt oculi mei is a moving setting in Latin of a text drawn from the Lamentations of Jeremiah. The composer portrays the sorrow of Jeremiah with intense chromaticism and dramatic word-painting. The extended SSATTB voicing allows for rich harmonic textures and moments of profound expressive depth as the text laments, "My eyes have grown dim from my weeping" and asks "If there is any sorrow like my sorrow."