A Musical Gem: Initium sapientiae timor Domini by Nicola Fago

Initium sapientiae timor Domini (from Psalm-setting Confitebor Tibi , Psalm 110 ) was composed around the year 1706 by Nicola Fago, primo maestro at the Conservatorio di Sant’ Onofrio a Capuana, from 1704 to 1708.

“Initium sapientiae timor Domini” [as part of Vulgate, Psalm 110, Confitebor] was a setting commonly used for Vespers accompanied with other liturgical pieces in Neapolitan churches.

Nicola Fago was the first Neapolitan composer of comical operas, but it is his sacred music that brought him fame. Five settings of Psalm 110 which Fago composed, required usually 4 to 5 voices in total, using  the standard texts contained in the biblical Book of Psalms.

Sacred music was required, at least occasionally, in literally hundreds of Neapolitan churches, as well as in oratorios, congregations, and academies, and for many public and private functions. Fago’s long engagement with the churches and chapels of Naples is attested to by his enormous output of sacred music, the surviving scores of which include a Requiem, eleven settings of the Mass, eighteen psalm-settings including this “Initium sapientiae timor Domini”, seven Magnificats, four liturgies and dozens of smaller settings of sacred texts.

International Declaration on Sacred Music

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Instruction Musicam Sacram (promulgated March 5, 1967), a Declaration on Sacred Music Cantate Domino, signed by over 200 musicians, pastors, and scholars from around the world, is published today in six languages (English, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German). This declaration argues for the continued relevance and importance of traditional sacred music, critiques the numerous serious deviations from it that have plagued the Catholic Church for the past half-century, and makes practical suggestions for improving the situation.

Readers are encouraged to read the text (reproduced below in full) and to disseminate it far and wide as a rallying-point for Roman Catholics who love their great heritage, and for all men and women who value high culture and the fine arts as expressions of the spiritual nobility of the human person made in God's image.

“CANTATE DOMINO CANTICUM NOVUM”

A Statement on the Current Situation of Sacred Music

We, the undersigned — musicians, pastors, teachers, scholars, and lovers of sacred music — humbly offer this statement to the Catholic community around the world, expressing our great love for the Church’s treasury of sacred music and our deep concerns about its current plight.

Introduction

Cantate Domino canticum novum, cantate Domino omnis terra (Psalm 96): this singing to God’s glory has resonated for the whole history of Christianity, from the very beginning to the present day. Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition alike bear witness to a great love for the beauty and power of music in the worship of Almighty God. The treasury of sacred music has always been cherished in the Catholic Church by her saints, theologians, popes, and laypeople.