Sicut Cervus is a
setting of
Psalm 42:1 (
Vulgate version). As noted above, it is a
motet composed by
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Like many of Palestrina's works, it utilizes
imitative polyphony.
The original Latin text is as follows (with a * denoting the beginning of each imitated 'movement' of the piece):
*Sicut cervus desiderat ad fontes aquarum,
*Ita desiderat *anima mea ad te, Deus.
Translated into English, it equates roughly to "Like as the
hart desireth the water brooks, so longeth my
soul after thee, O
God".
I extend my thanks to the mysterious noders who subtly added to and corrected bits of (well, one typo) my writeup via softlinks.