Vigilate is a five-part Latin motet by the renaissance English composer William Byrd (1543-1623). It was published in the Cantiones Sacrae of 1589 and takes its text from Mk. 13 : 35-7, where Christ exhorts his disciples to watch for the end of the world.

This work is unusual for its madrigal-like text-painting. At, for example, an galli cantu ("or at cock-crow"), the voices imitate a rooster's crow, the bass leaping a sixth and several voices singing short, quick melismas. At repente ("suddenly"), we find ourselves in short rhythms. The phrase inveniat vos dormientes is a long, slow double canon, reminiscent of sleepy disciples.



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