Uncluttered and heavenly, this brief, sacred motet for four voices is an uplifting meditation, with its text taken from Psalm 42:2. Listeners becoming acquainted with the vocal music of the sixteenth-century style will immediately understand why Palestrina holds such an important position in Western music's current pantheon. While much of the music from this period is rife with striking inventions of sound, this composer goes back to the basics and composes with clarity that demands repeated hearings. The assonance of the imitative counterpoint and its fluent reverence are compelling, regardless of religious stripe. Like Di Lasso, Palestrina has a notable selflessness about his writing that does not seem shaped to please the powers of the day, though he was specifically entrusted with advising other composers (by order of the executors of the Council of Trent) against bawdy or otherwise improper writing for the church. However ominous this sort of entitlement may sound to contemporary readers, he took on this position determined to lead by example. Sicut cervus disiderat features a tone that is reverent, selfless, and reveals a unique understanding of how music for the church can be written. Though history may have remembered him as a censor, music such as this cannot but persuade audiences that a much worse choice could have been made.

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