Terra tremuit

Scoring: Soli SATB, Coro SATB, 2 Ctr, Timp, [3 Trb], 2 Vl, Bc

Eberlin’s programmatic setting of the offertory “Terra tremuit” was written for the festive liturgy of Easter Sunday at Salzburg Cathedral, which in the 17th and 18th centuries was a center of the cultivation of the polyphonic offertory. Verses 9 and 10 of Psalm 76 (Vulgata 75), with their vivid description of the earth trembling and falling silent are Eberlin’s basis for the offertory.

Eberlin depicts the earthquake by means of a written-out tremolo of the strings, and by staccato singing of the syllables of the word “tremuit”. The Resurrection is depicted musically by ascending figures at the words “dum resurgere”. An Alleluia concludes the work.