Camille Saint-Sans

(1835-1921)

Ave Verum
in E at major

Edited by Anne-Marie Forbes

 Ave Verum in E at major
Camille Saint-Sans

bb c p
Moderato

SOPRANO & b
A - ve ve - rum cor - pus na - tum de Ma - ri - a Vir - gi -

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b
ALTO &

A - ve ve - rum cor - pus na - tum de Ma - ri - a Vir - gi -

& bbbc p


TENOR

A - ve ve - rum cor - pus na - tum de Ma - ri - a Vir - gi -

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{
BASS

A - ve ve - rum cor - pus na - tum de Ma - ri - a Vir - gi -

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Moderato

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Organ

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ne. Ve - re pas - sum im - mo - la - tum in cru - ce pro ho - mi -

b
&b b
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w
ne. Ve - re pas - sum im - mo - la - tum in cru - ce pro ho - mi -

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cresc. f
& b
ne. Cu - jus la - tus per - fo - ra - tum un - da u - xit cum san - gui -

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ne. Es - to no - bis prae - gus - ta - tum in mor - tis ex - a - mi - ne.

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Es - to no - bis prae - gus - ta - tum in mor - - tis, mor - -

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b
n
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dim.
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Es - to no - bis prae - gus - ta - tum in mor - - - - - tis

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dim.
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Es - to no

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- tis ex - a - mi - ne. A - - - - - men.

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&
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ex - a - mi - ne. A - - - - men.

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 5

The sacred compositions of Camille Saint-Sans include six settings of

the Ave Verum text. This Ave Verum in E at major for SATB choir was
published in 1865, the same year as was published another setting that
he had written for soprano, alto and organ. These two works were both
composed during the four years Saint-Sans was teaching at the cole
Niedermeyer, an institution that had been founded in 1853 with the
deliberate aim of raising the standard of church music. Students were
given a strong foundation in Gregorian chant and sixteenth-century
counterpoint, and these inuences are reected in Saint-Sans' own
church compositions as well as the works of his famous student and life-
long friend, Gabriel Faur. Saint-Sans also composed an Ave Verum in
D major for female voices in four parts with horn obbligato, as well as
three solo settings; one for alto and two for baritone.

Ave Verum is a Eucharistic hymn dating from the fourteenth century. Its
text is centred on the real presence of the Body of Christ in the Eucharist
and points to this sacrament as oering to the faithful in the trials of
death a foretaste of the heavenly banquet to come. In a liturgical context
an Ave Verum setting may be sung at the Eucharist or at the Benediction
of the Blessed Sacrament and is appropriate to be sung for the Feast of
Corpus Christi.

Translation
Hail True Body, born of the Virgin, who, having suered was sacriced on the
cross for humankind; from whose pierced side owed water and blood. For us let
it be a foretaste in the trial of death.

Anne-Marie Forbes 2012