Advent: Vigilate (Keep Watch!)

Vigilate is a five-part Latin motet by the renaissance English composer William Byrd (1543-1623). It was published in the Cantiones Sacrae of 1589 and takes its text from Mk. 13 : 35-7, where Christ exhorts his disciples to watch for the end of the world.

Watch ye, therefore,(for you know not when the lord of the house cometh: at even, or at midnight, or at the cock crowing, or in the morning). Lest coming on a sudden, he find you sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to all: Watch.