Kerensa Briggs: Media Vita
VOCES8

From the YouTube page:

‘Media Vita’ was written in 2015 to celebrate 500 years since the birth of the English Renaissance composer, John Sheppard. The piece draws inspiration from both the expansiveness and intensity found within Sheppard’s setting and the meaning found within the text itself (‘In the midst of life we are in death… Holy and merciful Saviour deliver us not to the bitter pains of death’). These ideas are incorporated into a richer harmonic language and reflective sonority.

TEXT
Media vita in morte sumus
quem quaerimus adjutorem
nisi te, Domine,
qui pro peccatis nostris
juste irasceris?

Sancte Deus,
sancte fortis,
sancte et misericors Salvator:
amarae morti ne tradas nos.

TRANSLATION
In the midst of life we are in death
of whom may we seek for succour,
but of thee, O Lord,
who for our sins
art justly displeased?

Holy God,
Holy mighty,
Holy and merciful Saviour,
deliver us not unto bitter death.