Salve Regina, Motet for TTBB Chorus, a cappella, is from The Harvard/Ashmont Evening Service (2022) for SATB and TTBB Choruses and Two Organs. Composed during the spring and summer of 2022, The Harvard/Ashmont Evening Service, along with this TTBB motet, Salve Regina, and an SATB introit, Seek Him, were parts of a commission from the Harvard Glee Club and the Harvard Glee Club Alumni.* In addition to the Harvard Glee Club, the commission also involved the Choir of Men and Boys of the Parish of All Saints, Ashmont, in Dorchester, MA. The Harvard/Ashmont Evening Service (2022) is dedicated to both the Harvard Glee Club and its conductor, Dr. Andrew Clark, and to the Choir of Men and Boys of the Parish of All Saints, Ashmont and its Organist and Master of Choristers, Mr. Andrew Sheranian.
The Salve Regina text is often translated from the Latin into English as Hail, Holy Queen and is one of four traditional Marian antiphons of the Roman Catholic Church. The words date to the Middle Ages. Although for many years the Latin text was attributed to a German Benedictine monk, Hermann of Reichenau (1013 – 1054), most scholars now consider the text to have been anonymously written. My motet, Salve Regina, is intended to be performed within the context of The Harvard/Ashmont Evening Service (2022).
Dan Locklair
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Duration: ca. 3 minutes
Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiæ,
vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevæ,
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
in hac lacrimarum valle.
Eia, ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos
misericordes oculos ad nos converte;
Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,
nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.
O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria.
Greetings, O Queen, Mother of compassion,
our life, sweetness and hope, we greet you.
We outcast descendants of Eve cry out to you,
we long for you, groaning and weeping
in this valley of tears.
Ah, then, O you our advocate, those your
compassionate eyes turn to us;
and Jesus, the blessed fruit of your womb,
show us at the end of this our exile.
O merciful, O kind, O sweet Virgin Mary.
English translation by Robert W. Ulery
*The Harvard/Ashmont Evening Service (2022) was commissioned to celebrate the life and work of Dr. Archibald T. Davison (1883–1961). Dr. Davison, after previously serving as organist at the Parish of All Saints Church, Ashmont, was the conductor of both the Harvard University Choir and Harvard Glee Club. Through his work with these institutions, and as a faculty member of Harvard’s Department of Music, Davison championed music education at all levels. His powerful legacy includes books, articles, collections of scores, and a tradition of collaboration extending up to today through the Harvard Glee Club’s Archibald T. Davison Fellowship program, numerous joint musical projects, and new commissions. Owing to Dr. Davison’s vision and work, the rich and ongoing musical partnership between Harvard and the Parish of All Saints, Ashmont, continues.