Mirabile Delirium

This is a composition I wrote for the Young Composer's Award held by the National Centre for Early Music. It took roughly a month and a bit to write. Unfortunately it didn't get shortlisted but I enjoyed the process anyway. It's my first choral work, furthermore, a polyphonic motet- all things I've never tried before, so it was good fun learning and experimenting.
The lyrics are by late-Renaissance composer called Jacobus Gallus who wrote it for his own motet. It's titled Mirabile Mysterium. I titled mine 'Mirabile Delirium' since I thought it was funny. His setting is very interesting in his use of chromaticism, particularly for a Renaissance work.
Here's a link to a recording of his:
• Jacob Handl - Mirabile...
When writing something like this, at least as an inexperience composer, you need to avoid falling into the trap of imitating the style you're writing in. It may be a motet, but you're writing in the 21st century, not the 16th. This work is quite conventional in the tonal sense, but compared to renaissance polyphony, it's quite free and unique - at least I'd like to think, so maybe I avoided the trap. I haven't a clue what contemporary composition ought to look like though.
Setting latin was also a first, but at the same time made it a little easier than the English I think. Latin, being a romance language, I believe is 'syllable-timed' meaning that syllables generally have even duration so strange rhythm won't affect the sound of the language too much. On the other hand with English, you have to be quite careful with stressing and accentuation. (I say this like I know what I'm talking about, but from the little I've done, I think this is more or less true.)
Lyrics:
Mirabile mysterium declaratur hodie,
innovantur naturae; Deus homo factus est;
id quod fuit, permansit,
et quod non erat, assumpsit,
non commixtionem passus neque divisionem.
A wondrous mystery is declared today,
an innovation is made upon nature; God is made man;
that which he was, he remains,
and that which he was not, he takes on,
suffering neither commixture nor division.
Nylme

[@TristanHoverby]

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