O dulcis Jesu

Scoring: Violino discordato, Canto solo, Bc

The anonymous sacred concerto O dulcis Jesu is a setting of a text of baroque mysticism. The music very probably originated among the circle associated with Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber.

Especially noteworthy is the close relationship between themeaning of the words and the music: the mystical topos, the “bitter sweetness” of the desire to be wounded by the arrow of divine love and to die with Jesus, is represented ideally by the pale, basic tonality of E minor and the contrast provided bythe scordatura, the unusual tuning of the violin. This is a bold, extravagant, highly “baroque” piece!