Christopher Muscat’s score of his sacred cantata Qui cantat bis orat—referring to the famous dictum ‘he who sings prays twice’, generally attributed to St Augustine—is the most recent composition to be added to the catalogue of works at the Mdina Cathedral Archives. Conductor and composer Christopher Muscat specialised in the performance and composition of sacred music. He is currently maestro di cappella at St Paul’sCathedral in Mdina and at St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta. This is whatMuscat has to say about his composition: ‘The sacred cantata Qui cantat bis orat  was composed in 2018 and was commissioned by the Archives of the Metropolitan Cathedral on the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Mdina Cathedral Music Archives. This five-movement work is written for Cantor, Schola Gregoriana, SATB Choir, organ, and orchestra. Each of the movements is based on psalm verses, sung in Latin, carefully selected by the late Mgr Ġwann Azzopardi, scholar, and former curator of the Mdina Cathedral Archives’.

Read the full article about the Mdina Cathedral music archives and the inspiration they provide in developing music programmes for local contemporary festivals in the Christmas 2023 issue of Treasures of Malta. Researched and written by Cecilia Xuereb.

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