Tribulationes civitatum appeared in the 1584
Motectorum liber quintus, published in Rome, and makes use of soaring melodic phrases and quite abrupt harmonic and textural contrasts: the block chords at ‘Timor’, for example, which clearly make the word stand out, or the subsequent harmonic change at ‘et super liberos’. At the end of the first part there is a real sense of imploring for mercy at the words ‘Domine miserere’, characterized by a descending motif. In the second part such procedures are continued; most remarkable of all is the sudden harmonic stasis caused by the use of pedal notes at ‘iniuste egimus’; this is followed by two sequential descents onto bare fifths at ‘iniquitatem fecimus’.
from notes by Ivan Moody © 1999
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