The Antiphon

Antiphon

An antiphon in Christian music and ritual, is a "responsory" by a choir or congregation, usually in Gregorian chant, to a psalm or other text in a religious service or musical work....

 Salve Regina, HWV 241, was composed by George Friederic Handel mid-1707. It is most likely that the work was first performed on 16 July 1707 in the Church of Santa Maria in Montesanto

Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto

Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria di Montesanto are two churches in Rome.They are located on the Piazza del Popolo, facing the northern gate of the Aurelian Walls, at the entrance of Via del Corso on the square...

, under the patronage of the Colonna family

Colonna family

The Colonna family is an Italian noble family; it was powerful in medieval and Renaissance Rome, supplying one Pope and many other Church and political leaders...

.

Based on the Marian anthem with its supplicatory text, the opening and closing movements are slow and reflective and frame a vigorous allegro movement.

A typical performance lasts nearly 12 minutes.

Movements

The work has the following movements

Movement (music)

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...

:

Movement	Type and Voice	Text
1	Soprano solo	Hail Queen, mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope, hail. To you we cry, exiles, sones of Eve. To you we sigh, mourning and weeping, in this valley of tears.
2	Soprano solo	Turn then, our advocate, your eyes of mercy towards us. And after this our exile show to us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus.
3	Soprano solo	Merciful, holy, sweet virgin Mary.