This “Invitario de difuntos Regem Cui omnia” is the first plainchant, the invitatory and psalm 94, out of the the Officium Defunctorum ad Matutinum/ Office of the Dead at Matins and is still used and published in the Office of the Dead at Matins, in the old Liber Usualis (edition 1936) page 1779-1780. This imposing motet “Regem Cui omnis, venite adoremus” is set by Matias Juan de Veana for 12 voices divided in three choirs as follows: coro I SSAT & coro II SSSB & coro III SATB con arpa/harp or violon and partially figured basso continuo. Cristobal de Morales (c. 1500-1553), Giovanni Asola (1528-1609), Juan Vasquez (c. 1500-c.1560), Melchor Robledo (1510-1586) the same musically texture as De Morales except Ms. 19-20 in Altus, Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745), Hernando Franco (1532-1585), José de Nebra (1702-1768), Esteban Salas (1725-1803) have set this text (Invitatorium and psalm 94) too on music. So did more composers. There are two anonymous version of Regem cui (SATB) & ( SSAATTB and SATB) found in Mexico City Cathedral and in the Puebla Cathedral, two largely homophonic works. Especially in the Iberian peninsula and the new land we see manuscripts of the’ Regem cui omnia’ with ‘Venite adoremus’. De Veana's musical work offers the characteristics of the religious polyphony in a homophonic way of the late seventeenth century: solemn melodies that nonetheless incorporate new elements from the modern or baroque style itself, in which the note-against-note technique (dissonant notes) plays a predominant role, see for instance as a strong example of it at the end in coro II (Ms. 254 chord: a-b-g-d with a solution to A-major of course in this case to A-Phrygian) . The ‘Regem cui omnia , venite adoremus’ Invitatory participates all over the score of the same characteristics. Interesting here is the rare compiling of the coro I (SSAT) and coro II (SSSB) as we mentioned before. It’s recommendable to perform this masterpiece in ripieno style. That means that only coro III is in our opinion a tutti choir (SATB). Coro I and Coro II are designated to be executed by only soloists. The instrumentation is limited to the continuo consisting out of Harp/ Violin and a little organ.
Coro II starts followed by Coro I and Coro III in F-major. Of course the accent in this motet is in our opinion at the wording ’Venite adoremus’ (see Ms. 15-25; Ms. 104-110.) Not always is the belonging “Venite adoremus” repeated. But if you closely examine the score (Ms. 88 and Ms. 190) there is a possibility to repeat even in plainchant.
The total score consists out of 256 measures and is set in A-Phrygian. This marvellous motet is found in the Archivo de la música en el Real Monasterio de la Encarnación de Montserrat no. 4039.