For faithful Catholics it is the great mystery, and for those who are not Christian believers it is incomprehensible, possibly even off-putting the mystery of the Eucharist. As far back as the late medieval period, the verse prayer "Ave verum" inimitably captures the special atmosphere of the contradiction between a terrible death and the redemption of mankind. Matsushita sets an early version of this prayer for the Eucharist in motet-like ABA form. A floating melody, alternating precisely between major and minor and first sung solo by all four voices in transposition, introduces the piece in a contemplative style. The scale is then altered in the counterpoint to a pureDorian mode, contrasting in the middle section at the text “vere passum”, where Matsushita accompanies the increasingly wide-ranging melody and its chromatic, augmented intervals, by increasingly dissonant chordal shifts like a fauxbourdon. From this the tonal high point develops into an almost perfect F major, which then finally picks up on the opening motif for the added lines of text "O Jesu dulcis, o Jesu pie…" before ebbing away in F major. Voice range: S: des' fis'' / A:g° - d'' / T: c° - as' / B: F - c'
| Instrument | SATB |
| Genre (Fx Pop, Rock, Barn m.m.) | Post-1900 |
| Year of publishing | 2015 |
| Sidor | 4 |
| Bidragsgivare | Matsushita, Ko(Composer) Schuck, Stefan(Artist) |
| Språk | Latin |
| ISMN | 9790007164409 |