Edited with additional material from the Salzburg version“In Italy nowadays this term (motet) is applied to a Latin sacred solo cantata consisting of two arias and two recitatives concluding with an Hallelujah and sung during the Mass following the Credo generally by one of the best singers.” One composition matching this description is the solo motet Exsultate jubilate K. 165/158a which Mozart wrote in Milan early in 1773 following the highly successful performance of his opera Lucio Silla.In 1978 when the music manuscripts in Bavaria were being sorted and cataloged in a project sponsored by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft a set ofmanuscript parts for a previously unknown second version was discovered in the town parish church of St. Jakob in Wasserburg am Inn. The music and text of the concluding Alleluja movement were written out by the Salzburg court bassoonist and copyist Joseph Richard Estlinger (c. 1720–1791) who frequently worked for Mozart and his father.The vocal text of this Salzburg manuscript departs from that of the Milan version in the first aria and in the recitative. It was entered in a different hand. The Salzburg version of the text is clearly related to the feast of the Holy Trinity. There is much evidence that this version was sung for the first time in the Dreifaltigkeitskirche on 30 May 1779 (i. e. Trinity Sunday) by the Salzburg male soprano Francesco Ceccarelli during a service mentioned by Nannerl Mozart. On that day Leopold and Wolfgang Mozart together with Ceccarelli were invited to the church’s vicarage at midday. The additional text underlaying of the first aria enabled the solo motet to be employed for the Christmas service as well.- Urtext of the New Mozart Edition- Full score performance material (BA4897) and vocal score (BA4897-90) available for sale

This work When Christ Was Born of Mary Free sets the words of a traditional carol dating from the 15th century sensitively in D minor for the verse moving to a more joyous F for the Chorus. Darke’s papers list this piece as having been scored for Soprano solo Chorus SATB and Piano. Harold E Darke was an English composer and Organist of international renown. Darke composed extensively for choir and Organ. In 1916 he established the Monday lunchtime Organ recitals at St Michael’s Cornhill which continue to this day the longest-running such series in the world. His setting of Christina Rosetti’s poem In the Bleak Midwinter created a melody and lilting Organ accompanimentthat has never fallen from favour. It is regarded as one of the greatest of Christmas carols.