Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594)

Hymn Setting Sub tanto duci


Sub tanto duci militans
  Vincendo se non vincitur:
Duci miles cohabitans
  Iam bello non concutitur!

"Fighting under so great a Leader, / one is, by conquering oneself, not conquered at all. / A soldier who dwells together with his Leader / is certain in advance not to be confounded by the war."

Let anybody who knows exactly where THAT quatrain comes from in the Latin Middle Ages please tell me so I can know too and pass along my second-hand knowledge to the surfing community instead of this present display of blank ignorance. On reflection, I'm pretty sure that God the Father is the _dux_ and Jesus Christ is the _miles_ and that _cohabitans_ is therefore a Trinitarian allusion.

But on the other hand, maybe it means only what I guessed the first time around, that the _dux_ is God-in-general and the _miles_ the Church?

( Fruitcake S75 A74 T70 )

( Organ SAT20 )




Owen, Harold. Modal and Tonal Counterpoint: From Josquin to Stravinsky New York: Schirmer Books, 1992.
Example 8-1, pp. 71-73.

(egress)