Today’s Video of the Day is a performance of ‘Ad Te Levavi’ by the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge and Graham Ross. They are celebrating the 500th anniversary of Palestrina’s birth by recording for the first time an album of works by the Roman master that are still little-known. To add resonance to their programme, they pair settings of the same texts by three of Palestrina’s English contemporaries, William Byrd, Robert White, and William Mundy.

The text for Ad te Levavi is taken from Psalm 123: ‘To you have I lifted up my eyes, who dwells in heaven. Behold as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, As the eyes of the handmaid are on the hands of her mistress so are our eyes unto the Lord our God, until he has mercy on us. Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us: for we are greatly filled with contempt. For our soul is greatly filled: we are a reproach to the rich, and contempt to the proud.’