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Litanies de la Vierge

for 2 sopranos(f'#-a''b)(d'-f''), bass(G-e'b), and organ continuo

Edited by Simon Hanks

Charpentier wrote four Litanies de la Vierge, the present work being the one requiring the smallest forces. The Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Marian litany which was given approval for use in the Catholic Church by Pope Sixtus V in 1587. It is also referred to as the Litany of Loreto owing to its first documented usage at The Shrine of Our Lady of Loreto in Italy in 1558.

The current edition is based on the manuscript which appears in Volume 25 of Charpentier's Mélanges Autographes, the name attributed to his complete collected works, housed in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. I am grateful for their assistance in making available photocopies of the manuscript. This work is No 86 in the thematic catalogue prepared by Hitchcock.

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