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‘Cantate Domino’, with a text conflated from Psalms 95 and 97 (96 and 98) is another short motet contributed by Monteverdi to the anthology of motets for from one to eight voices published in 1620 by his pupil Giulio Cesare Bianchi. It seems to have been aimed at choirs of modest ability. Whether consciously or not, Monteverdi reused for the phrase ‘Cantate et exultate’ a musical sequence that he had first used at the end of the madrigal ‘Ecco mormorar l’onde’ in his Second Book of Madrigals of 1590; this may indicate that the motet was written very much earlier than its date of publication.

from notes by John Whenham © 2004