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A Stylistic Synthesis

Because of this doubling, Martines’s orchestral colors tines also make similar decisions about how to break the
vary widely between movements. No two consecutive text up into movements. The only signifi cant diff erence
movements employ the same instrumental forces. Trum- is in verses 5-7, where Handel sets “Dominus a dextris
pets and timpani sound only in the outer movements (a tuis,” “Judicabit”/“Conquassabit,” and “De torrente”
necessity given the keys of the inner movements), while as separate movements (or sections, in the case of “Ju-

flutes replace oboes in movements 2 and 3, and no winds dicabit” and “Conquassabit”), but Martines gives these
play at all in movements 4 and 6 (Table 3). This stands bits of text to diff erent soloists within a single continuous
in stark contrast to Handel’s setting, where the orchestra- movement. Whether due to conscious stylistic emulation
tion changes little. His second movement uses only basso on Martines’s part or simply to both composers’ atten-
continuo, and movement 6 only uses the violas for tutti tiveness to the text of the psalm, Martines’s structural
unison passages; aside from these small changes, the full approach clearly has much in common with Handel’s.
ensemble plays in every movement.
While their approaches to orchestration vary widely,
Handel and Martines make strikingly similar decisions Structure of Individual Movements
about which vocal forces to use for each line of text. In structuring her individual movements, Martines
Both settings employ the full choir for verse 1 of the uses both typically galant and typically Baroque forms.
psalm, soloists for verses 2 and 3, the full choir for verse The opening movement of the Dixit is set in a binary
4, some mix of soli and chorus for verse 5, and the full form, featuring two presentations of the same text, with

choir again for the closing doxology. Handel and Mar- similar musical material but often in different keys. After

Table 2. Tonal Plan of Martines’s Dixit Dominus

Mvt. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Key D G C a F a D

Key Distribution in Martines’s Dixit Dominus

Key signature 3 steps fl atter 2 steps flatter 1 step fl atter HOME

Minor mode 1 1 1 2

Major mode 0 2 0 0

Table 3. Distribution of Instrumental Forces in Martines’s Dixit Dominus

Mvt. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Tpt/timp. X X
Oboes X X X

Flutes X (1 solo)

Strings X X X X X X X
BC X X X X X X X

CHORAL JOURNAL April 2021 Volume 61 Number 9 9