Cum autem esset Stephanus

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, a towering figure of the Roman School, composed this sacred motet for SAATTB voices. The Latin text draws from the account of the martyrdom of Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr. It opens with Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looking to heaven and proclaiming his vision of the opened heavens and the Son of Man at the right hand of God. The music then shifts to Stephen's powerful prayer for his persecutors, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge," before concluding with the peaceful phrase, "And when he had said this, he fell asleep in the Lord." Palestrina masterfully captures the drama of Stephen's vision and his ultimate act of forgiveness through his signature polyphonic style.