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Líbera Me ("Deliver me") is a Roman Catholic Responsory that is sung in the Office of the Dead and at the Absolution of the Dead, a Service of Prayers for the Dead that is said beside the coffin, immediately after the Requiem Mass and before the Burial.
The text of Libera Me asks God to have mercy upon the deceased person at the Last Judgement. In addition to the Gregorian Chant in the Roman Gradual, many composers have written Settings for the text, including Tomás Luis de Victoria, Anton Bruckner, Giuseppe Verdi, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Duruflé, Krzysztof Penderecki and David Maslanka.
Líbera me, Dómine, de morte ætérna, in die illa treménda:
Quando cœli movéndi sunt et terra.
Dum véneris iudicáre sǽculum per ignem.
Tremens factus sum ego, et tímeo, dum discússio vénerit, atque ventúra ira.
Quando cœli movendi sunt et terra.
Dies illa, dies iræ, calamitátis et misériæ, dies magna et amára valde.
Dum véneris iudicáre sǽculum per ignem.
Réquiem ætérnam dona eis, Dómine: et lux perpétua lúceat eis.
Deliver me, O Lord, from death eternal on that fearful day,
When the Heavens and the Earth shall be moved,
When Thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.
I am made to tremble, and I fear, till the judgement be upon us, and the coming wrath,
When the Heavens and the Earth shall be moved.
That day, day of wrath, calamity, and misery, day of great and exceeding bitterness,
When Thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.
Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord: and let light perpetual shine upon them.
When the Heavens and the Earth shall be moved,
When Thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.
I am made to tremble, and I fear, till the judgement be upon us, and the coming wrath,
When the Heavens and the Earth shall be moved.
That day, day of wrath, calamity, and misery, day of great and exceeding bitterness,
When Thou shalt come to judge the world by fire.
Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord: and let light perpetual shine upon them.
Libera Me is begun by a Cantor, who sings the Versicles, alone, and the Responses are sung by the Choir. The text is written in the first person singular, "Deliver me, O Lord, from eternal death on that fearful day," a dramatic substitution, in which the Choir speaks for the dead person.
In the Traditional Office, Libera Me is also said on All Souls' Day (2 November) and whenever all three Nocturns, of Matins of the Dead, are recited.
On other occasions, the Ninth Responsory, of Matins for the Dead, begins with "Libera Me", but continues with a different text (Domine, de viis inferni, etc.).
"Libera Me" a 4.
Manuel Cardoso (1566-1650).
Responsorium after Missa Pro Defunctis a 6.
The Tallis Scholars
Director: Peter Phillips.
Available on YouTube at
Cardoso is not known to be related to an older contemporary composer of the same name; the precentor, Manuel Cardoso, who published a book of Latin passions "in Leiria", in 1575.
Cardoso was born in Fronteira, near Portalegre, most likely in 1566. He attended the Colégio dos Moços do Coro, a Choir School associated with the Évora Cathedral, studying with Manuel Mendes and Cosme Delgado.
In 1588, he joined the Carmelite Order, taking his Vows in 1589. In the early 1620s, he was Resident at the Ducal Household of Vila Viçosa, where he was befriended by the Duke of Barcelos — later to become King John IV. For most of his career, he was the Resident Composer and Organist at the Carmelite Convento do Carmo in Lisbon.
Cardoso's works are models of Palestrinian polyphony, and are written in a refined, precise style, which completely ignores the development of the Baroque idiom elsewhere in Europe. His style has much in common with Tomás Luis de Victoria, in its careful treatment of dissonance, occasional polychoral writing, and frequent cross-relations, which were curiously common among both Iberian and English composers of the time.
Cardoso's works are models of Palestrinian polyphony, and are written in a refined, precise style, which completely ignores the development of the Baroque idiom elsewhere in Europe. His style has much in common with Tomás Luis de Victoria, in its careful treatment of dissonance, occasional polychoral writing, and frequent cross-relations, which were curiously common among both Iberian and English composers of the time.
Three books of Masses survive; many of the works are based on Motets, written by King John IV, himself, and others are based on Motets by Palestrina. Cardoso was widely published, often with the help of King John IV, to defray costs. Many of his works — especially the elaborate polychoral compositions, which probably were the most progressive — were destroyed in the Lisbon earthquake and fire of 1755.
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