The present Six Motets for the Church Year were composed between 1843 and 1846 at the request of King Frederick William IV of Prussia for the Berlin Cathedral Choir. Mendelssohn, who in 1842 had been commissioned by the King to reorganise the Berlin Cathedral Choir, nonetheless recognised the potential of setting these so-called “Sayings” to music, thereby creating a new form of sacred choral composition. The pieces are scored for eight-part a cappella choir and he took as his stylistic model the vocal polyphony of the Renaissance, particularly the compositional style of Palestrina. In this edition, the six Motets follow the liturgical year—beginning with Advent, followed by Christmas, New Year, Passiontide, Good Friday, and Ascension. This SAM-Klang edition offers a balanced arrangement for four-part choir (three upper voices and one lower voice), thereby enabling smaller ensembles to perform these musically and theologically valuable works.

The name SAM-Klang takes the three voice parts from the arrangements – Soprano, Alto and Men – and combines it with the Scandinavian and German words for ‘sound’ to create the portmanteau word ‘sound together’ or ‘harmony’. The SAM-Klang series offers basic and advanced choral repertoire arranged for soprano, alto and one male voice- part. In addition to new repertoire and new arrangements, you will also find essential parts of the classical German, Scandinavian, French and English SATB repertoire, carefully and considerately reworked for SAM. The arrangements retain the characteristic features of the original movements and have almost the same richness of timbre, resulting in works which sound nearly unchanged to an audience. Piano reductions of all choral movements facilitate rehearsal preparation. The arrangements offer development opportunities for all voice sections, bringing new life and new quality to SAM choir work. SAM-Klang enables youth choirs to gain access to classical choral literature and ensures that mixed choirs who face challenges in finding singers for all male voice parts continue to have access to well-loved repertoire.

Content:
1. Im Advent [Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy]
2. Weihnachten [Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy]
3. Am Neujahrstage [Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy]
4. In der Passionzeit [Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy]
5. Am Charfreitage [Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy]
6. Am Himmelfahrtstage [Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy]