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The Deus in Adiutorium & Alleluia from the the Venetian Christmas Vespers, performed by the San Francisco Early Music ensemble Voices of Music. In the baroque period, it was common practice to recite the text of some parts of the Vespers service while improvising over a simple set of of chords; the resulting sonority highlights the text and provides a contrast to the polyphonic sections. This practice was called “falsobordone,“ a term which hearkens back to the somewhat similar renaissance practice of “faux
