The Tract for Lent 4: Qui confidunt in Domino

Here's a (partial) mp3 of this chant from JoguesChant, with the Latin chant score and their English translation below:

Here's a video of the whole thing:



The YouTube blurb says this, in Portuguese:

Ensaio do coro Instituto Gregoriano de Lisboa, gentilmente cedido. Gratias Instituto Gregoriano Olissiponensi quarum voces audiuntur.

The text for this tract is taken from Psalm 125, another of the "Songs of Ascents."

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion; the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall never be shaken. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people, from this time forth and for evermore.

Here's an explanation from Chabad.org about the "Songs of Ascents":

Question: Why do certain psalms begin with the words, "A song of ascents"? What sort of ascent is this referring to?

Answer: Fifteen psalms, chapters 120-134 of the Book of Psalms, begin with the words, "A song of ascents."

Many interpretations have been given for these ambiguous words. Here are a few of them:

a) In the Holy Temple courtyard, there was an ultra wide stairway that consisted of fifteen large, semi-circular steps that "ascended" into the inner section of the courtyard. The Levites, whose job it was to accompany the Temple service with song and instrumental music, would stand on these steps and sing these fifteen psalms.

b) These psalms were sung on a high "ascendant" musical note.

c) These psalms were sung starting in a low tone of voice and steadily ascending to a higher one.

d) These psalms were sung by the Jews who ascended from Babylon to Israel in the times of Ezra the Scribe.

e) These psalms were sung by the Jews when they would "ascend" to visit the Holy Temple three times annually for the festivals.

f) These psalms praise, exult and "elevate" G‑d.

g) The Talmud gives an aggadaic explanation:

"When King David was digging the Shitin [a stream that ran beneath the Holy Temple, into which the wine libations were poured], the water of the depths arose and threatened to flood the world. David said, 'Is there someone who knows whether it is permitted to write [G‑d's] name on an earthenware shard and we will throw it into the depths and it will subside?' . . . Ahitophel responded, 'It is permitted.' [David] wrote the name on earthenware and threw it into the depths. The depths receded 16,000 cubits. When he saw that it receded greatly, he said, 'The higher the depths, the moister is the ground [which benefits agriculture].' He said the fifteen [songs of] ascents, and the depths rose 15,000 cubits."

Rabbi Naftali Silberberg,
Chabad.org editorial team

And here's the Wikipedia entry for "Songs of Ascents".  That article points out about Eastern Christianity that:

In the Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite, the Songs of Degrees (Greek: anabathmoi) make up the Eighteenth Kathisma (division of the Psalter), and are read on Friday evenings at Vespers throughout the liturgical year. The Kathisma is divided into three sections (called stases) of five psalms each.

During Great Lent the Eighteenth Kathisma is read every weekday (Monday through Friday evening) at Vespers, and on Monday through Wednesday of Holy Week. In the Slavic usage this Kathisma is also read from the apodosis of the Exaltation of the Cross up to the forefeast of the Nativity of Christ, and from the apodosis of Theophany up to the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. The reason for this is that the nights are longer in winter, especially in the northern latitudes, so during this season three Kathismas will be chanted at Matins instead of two, so in order to still have a reading from the Psalter at Vespers, the Eighteenth Kathisma is repeated.

In the West, the Tracts for the last three Sundays in Lent are all taken from the "Songs of Ascents," both now and in the past (via the "Extraordinary Form"). Also:

The Western Daily Office was strongly influenced by the Rule of St. Benedict, where these psalms are assigned to Terce, Sext and None on weekdays.

[EDIT: Derek points out via comments that:

The Songs of Ascent are also known as the gradual psalms in the West given the Latin translation of the title (canticum graduum). They became a standard part of the medieval prymers based on earlier early medieval monastic practice. Ardo's life of Benedict of Aniane tells how he had his monks chant the 15 gradual psalms before Matins, five for the living faithful, five for the faithful departed, five for the recently departed.

There was also a Marian connection here because in the apocryphal materials on Mary's early life she sang these psalms when she was dedicated to the Temple. So--in the West, these got tied into two of their favorite themes: Mary and the dead. ]

Here's another version of this Tract, sung by The Florida Schola Cantorum, at the Eglise de la Madeleine in Paris on March 29, 2011, it says.



And here is a polyphonic version from the late 16th or early 17th Century, with the YouTube description below:

Qui confidunt in Domino by Kryštof Harant z Polžic a Bezdružic [1564-1621] as performed by the Prague Chamber Choir in concert conducted by Jaroslav Brych.

The Tract for Lent 3: de Lassus' Ad te levavi oculos meos

I've written about this Tract previously, and included chant and polyphonic versions - but found another gorgeous setting of it this year , from Orlando de Lassus. (The video contains a bit of unfortunate noise at a couple of spots.)



Here's the Latin text and English (JoguesChant) translation of the text:

Ad te levavi oculos meos,
qui habitas in coelis.
Ecce sicut oculi servorum
in manibus dominorum suorum,
sicut oculi ancillae
in manibus dominae suae,
ita oculi nostri
ad Dominum Deum nostrum,
donec misereatur nostri.
Miserere nostri, Domine
quia multum repleti sumus despectione.

I have lifted my eyes up unto you, who dwell in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hands of their masters; And as the eyes of a maidservant to the hands of her mistress; So do our eyes look unto the Lord our God until he have mercy on us. Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us.

Here's an mp3 of the Gregorian plainchant version, from Jogues, and the chant score:

Znamenny Chant: The Lord's Prayer

ZNAMENNY CHANT, St. Petersburg, Russia (clip) - YouTube. This is apparently a composed version, by Nikolay Kedrov, and is very well known and loved. It's beautiful.

Отче наш, Иже еси на небесех!
Да святится имя Твое,
да приидет Царствие Твое,
да будет воля Твоя,
яко на небеси и на земли.
Хлеб наш насущный даждь нам днесь;
и остави нам долги наша,
якоже и мы оставляем должником нашим;
и не введи нас во искушение,
но избави нас от лукаваго.
Аминь.

TRANSLITERATION
Otche nash, susthiy na nebesah,
Da svyatitca imya tvoye,
Da priidet tsarstvye tvoye,
Da budet volya tvoya
I na zemle kak na nebe.
Hleb nash nasusthnyiy dai nam na sey den,
I prosti nam dolgi nashi,
Kak i myi prosthae dolnikam nashim,
I ne vvedi nas v iskushenye,
No izbav nas ot lukavogo. Amin.

PRONUNCIATION
Ot-che nash,
Ee-zhe ye see na nye-bye-sekh!
da svya-tee-tsya ee-mya Tvo-ye, da pri-ee-dyet Tsar-stvi-ye Tvo-ye:
da boo-dyet vol-ya Tvo-ya, ya-ko na nye-bye-see ee na zem-lee.
Khleb nash na-soosch-nui dazhd nam dnyes:
ee o-sta-vee nam dol-gee na-shya, ya-ko-zhe ee mui o-sta-vlya-yem dol-zhnee-kom na-shuim:
ee nye vvye-dee nas vo ees-koo-shye-ni-ye,
no eez-ba-vee nas ot loo-ka-va-go.

From the YouTube page:

Znamenny chant (Russian: Знаменное пение, знаменный распев).

As I was locally informed, no musical instruments accompanied chants in orthodox churches, because the human voice, one of the greatest achievements of God, cannot be polluted by man made musical instruments. The clip was taken (September 8, 2010) in St Peter and St Paul orthodox Cathedral (St Petersburg, Russian Federation), where the mortal remains of Tsar Nicholas II and family were laid to rest since July 17, 1998. The cathedral is located inside the fortress with the same name. For further information about Znamenny chant, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Znamenny_chant.

Here I do acknowledge @WeenisLad for the following amendment: formerly, I supposed that the chant was Gregorian; however, it is Znamenny. Many thanks.
According to a viewer (@frostymama), this version is by Kedrov - "We sing an english translation of this nearly every week at Church. It is my favorite arrangement of the Our Father."

The Tract for Lent 2: Commovisti, Domine

Sung by the Schola of the Vienna Hofburgkapelle:



The text comes from Psalm 60; here's the JouguesChant translation:

You have caused the earth to quake, O Lord, you have rent it open. Repair its breaches, for it totters. May your chosen ones escape the menacing bow and be delivered.

This Psalm is one of those that has an instruction to the Choirmaster:

To the choirmaster: according to Shushan Eduth. A Miktam of David; for instruction; when he strove with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, and when Joab on his return struck down twelve thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt.

The unfamiliar words ("Shushan Eduth" and "Mikta") are probably music terms; nobody's quite sure, though, since the Psalms are so old and their origins obscure.  I love that they left the instructions in, though!

Tracts are sung during Lent prior to the Gospel reading, and in place of the Alleluia.  They are always Psalms, and the Tract text for a Sunday is always taken from the same Psalm.  This one, like several others, is quite long.

Here is part of the interesting New Advent entry on the "Gradual" (which immediately precedes the Alleluia or Tract):

Gradual, in English often called Grail, is the oldest and most important of the four chants that make up the choir's part of the Proper of the Mass. Whereas the three others (Introit, Offertory, and Communion) were introduced later, to fill up the time while something was being done, the Gradual (with its supplement, the Tract or Alleluia) represents the singing of psalms alternating with readings from the Bible, a custom that is as old as these readings themselves. Like them, the psalms at this place are an inheritance from the service of the Synagogue. Copied from that service, alternate readings and psalms filled up a great part of the first half of the Liturgy in every part of the Christian world from the beginning. Originally whole psalms were sung. In the "Apostolic Constitutions" they are chanted after the lessons from the Old Testament: "The readings by the two (lectors) being finished, let another one sing the hymns of David and the people sing the last words after him" (ta aposticha hypopsalleto, II, 57). This use of whole psalms went on till the fifth century. St. Augustine says: "We have heard first the lesson from the Apostle. Then we sang a psalm. After that the lesson of the gospel showed us the ten lepers healed." (Serm. clxxvi, 1). These psalms were an essential part of the Liturgy, quite as much as the lessons. "They are sung for their own sake; meanwhile the celebrants and assistants have nothing to do but to listen to them" (Duchesne, "Origines du Culte chrétien", 2nd ed., Paris, 1898, p. 161). They were sung in the form of a psalmus responsorius, that is to say, the whole text was chanted by one person — a reader appointed for this purpose. [For some time before St. Gregory I, to sing these psalms was a privilege of deacons at Rome. It was suppressed by him in 595 (Ibid.).] The people answered each clause or verse by some acclamation. In the "Apostolic Constitutions" (above) they repeat his last modulations. Another way was to sing some ejaculation each time. An obvious model of this was Psalm 135 with its refrain: "quoniam in æternum misericordia eius"; from which we conclude that the Jews too knew the principle of the responsory psalm. We still have a classical example of it in the Invitatorium of Matins (and the same Psalm 94 in the third Nocturn of the Epiphany). It appears that originally, while the number of biblical lessons was still indefinite, one psalm was sung after each. When three lessons became the normal custom (a Prophecy, Epistle, and Gospel) they were separated by two psalms. During the fifth century (Duchesne, op. cit., p. 160) the lessons at Rome were reduced to two; but the psalms still remain two, although both are now joined together between the Epistle and Gospel, as we shall see. Meanwhile, as in the case of many parts of the Liturgy, the psalms were curtailed, till only fragments of them were left. This process, applied to the first of the two, produced our Gradual; the second became the Alleluia or Tract.

Here's another lovely version of this from JoqueChant, and here's the full chant score:

Josquin des Prez: Qui habitat

A double dip for Lent I. The tract for this day is Qui habitat, about which I posted a few years ago. I just now, though, came across this stunning des Prez setting of the text, and couldn't not post it; it's sublime:



From the YouTube page:

Josquin des Prez (c. 1450 to 1455 August 27, 1521), often referred to simply as Josquin, was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. He is also known as Josquin Desprez, a French rendering of Dutch "Josken van de Velde", diminutive of "Joseph van de Velde" ("of the fields"), and Latinized as Josquinus Pratensis, alternatively Jodocus Pratensis. He was the most famous European composer between Guillaume Dufay and Palestrina, and is usually considered to be the central figure of the Franco-Flemish School. Josquin is widely considered by music scholars to be the first master of the high Renaissance style of polyphonic vocal music that was emerging during his life

*****

"Qui habitat"
Original text and translations may be found at Psalm 91.. The text set by Josquin is the first eight verses of the Latin Vulgate (which is numbered as Psalm 90).

Latin text
Psalmus 90, 18 (Vulgate)

90:1 Qui habitat in adjutorio Altissimi, in protectione Dei cæli commorabitur. 2 Dicet Domino: Susceptor meus es tu et refugium meum; Deus meus, sperabo in eum. 3 Quoniam ipse liberavit me de laqueo venantium, et a verbo aspero. 4 Scapulis suis obumbrabit tibi, et sub pennis ejus sperabis. 5 Scuto circumdabit te veritas ejus: non timebis a timore nocturno; 6 a sagitta volante in die, a negotio perambulante in tenebris, ab incursu, et dæmonio meridiano. 7 Cadent a latere tuo mille, et decem millia a dextris tuis; ad te autem non appropinquabit. 8 Verumtamen oculis tuis considerabis et retributionem peccatorum videbis.

English translation
Psalm 91, 18 (King James Version)

91:1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. 3 Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. 4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. 5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; 6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. 7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. 8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

Performed : Huelgas Ensemble
Dir : Paul Van Nevel

(Here's the chant version, from ReneGoupil:


Lent - First Sunday: Tract from Corpus Christi Watershed on Vimeo.


)

Angelis suis: the Lent I gradual

Angelis suis - "His angels" - is the gradual for the first Sunday of Lent; it's a beautiful chant, as sung here by Giovanni Vianini:



Here's the chant score:

As noted last year, all the chants for this first Sunday in Lent come from Psalm 91; this text is from verses 11-12.

To his Angels he has given a commandment concerning you, to keep you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.

"Memory and Hope"

From Stephen Gerth, in St. Mary the Virgin's The Angelus this week:

I've just discovered a book that I'm pretty sure would have influenced a lot of the thinking and writing I have done over the last decade or so if I had read it earlier. The book, Between Memory and Hope: Readings on the Liturgical Year (2000), was edited by Notre Dame Professor Maxwell Johnson. It is a collection of essays by fourteen liturgists and theologians from different denominations. Johnson takes his title from an essay in the book by the late Thomas Talley (1924-2005), who for many years was professor of liturgics at the General Theological Seminary. As Christians we live with the memory of Christ's saving work and the hope for Christ's coming at the end of time.

I bought the book because of a reference to one of those essays in another book, Johnson's and Paul Bradshaw's The Origins of Feast, Fasts and Seasons in Early Christianity (2011). The essay, "The Three Days and the Forty Days," was written by Patrick Regan who now teaches at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute in Rome. Between Memory and Hope arrived on Ash Wednesday. That title is itself a meditation, a proclamation, about the way we who believe in Jesus Christ are called to live.

So far, I have looked briefly at Regan's article-how to count the "Three Days" of the Easter or "Paschal" Triduum-the name, as well as the counting, are worth reviewing at another time; and I have also read Johnson's introduction. He writes about Easter and Lent:

Easter and Pentecost are about our death and resurrection in Christ today, our passover from death to life in his passover, through water and the Holy Spirit in baptism. Lent is about our annual retreat, our annual re-entry into the catechumenate and order of penitents in order to reflect on, affirm, remember and re-claim that baptism. (page xii)

I haven't made a study of the classic texts for the admission of unbaptized adults to the historic formation program known as the catechumenate. The Episcopal Church's version is found in The Book of Occasional Services 2003. The rite begins with one question to those who are coming to faith, "What do you seek?" The answer is "Life in Christ" (page 117).

I far prefer the questions now used by the Roman Church for the beginning of the rite-why we use different questions and answers I suspect is more than a matter of translation, but I really don't know why they are different. Their rite begins with the celebrant asking each person, "What is your name?" Then, the celebrant asks, "What do you ask of God's Church?" The answer is, "Faith." Then, "What does faith offer you?" The answer, "Eternal life" (The Rites of the Catholic Church [1976], 41).

Saint Paul writes, "Now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life" (Romans 6:22). The Greek word for 'end,' telos, carries the meaning both of 'end of time' and the 'goal toward which we move.' In the words "faith" and "hope," the Church remembers Jesus' promise that the end of all things (in both senses of telos) is in him, when he will be "all in all" (Ephesians 1:23). The journey to death and resurrection is God's plan for all human life; we make it our own through Christ with memory and with hope.

"Hymn from the Feast of Transfiguration"

I wanted to post this beautiful hymn in Syriac and figured I could do it now, since the Transfiguration gets celebrated twice during the church year! The feast day itself is on August 6 - but the event itself occurs just before Palm Sunday and gets celebrated each year on the last Sunday before Lent begins (last week).



The link at the YouTube page points to the (quite beautiful) syrianorthodox website.  This comes from the Transfiguration page:

Qurbana Hymn after the reading of the Gospel

കീപ്പായും യോഹന്നാനും യാക്കോബും ചേര്‍ന്നു
താബോര്‍മല കര്‍ത്താവേറി മൂശായേ നീബോ
മലയില്‍നിന്നും - നിബിയേലീയായേ
വാനില്‍നിന്നും - ചെയ്താനാഹ്വാനം
ദൈവാത്മജമുഖകാന്തിയഹോ - ഭാവം മാറുകയും
ശോഭനമായൊരു മേഘം വന്നവരേ വേഗത്തില്‍
ഹാലേലുയ്യാ - ചൂടുകയം ചെയ്തു.

I'm sorry to say I don't have a translation of the text itself. Working on it!

Exaltabo Te, Domine

Here's an mp3 from JoguesChant of the Ash Wednesday Offertory, Exaltabo Te, Domine; below is the chant score.

The text comes from Psalm 30; here's JoguesChant's translation:

I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up, and have not allowed my enemies to rejoice over me; O Lord, I called out unto you, and you healed me.

Here's another version, from the Schola Gregoriana Mediolanensis:



The Collect for the day echoes the portion of Wisdom in today's Introit:

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Scarlatti (1685–1757) composed a setting of this text; here's one version of that:



Here's something really gorgeous, though! It's another version of Exaltabo Te from Psalm 30 (although not this text precisely; I'm trying to find the text itself and will come back and post it when I do) by Michel-Richard Delalande (1657-1726), in the glorious Grands Motets style:



And there's a Taizé version of Exaltabo Te, too; the Coral Corpus Christi, of the church of Corpus Christi de Málaga, sings this one:



Here's the last part of Eliot's poem, Ash Wednesday; I've loved this particular section since I first read it when I was 18 years old (and many years from joining the church):

Blessed sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks,
Our peace in His will
And even among these rocks
Sister, mother
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
Suffer me not to be separated
And let my cry come unto Thee.

A holy Lent to all. We are dust, and will return to dust.

"Ash Wednesday: 'it is by this that the Church on earth stands'"

From catholicity and covenant today:

In the order of the Creed, after the mention of the Holy Church is placed the remission of sins. For it is by this that the Church on earth stands: it is through this that what had been lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again. For, setting aside the grace of baptism, which is given as an antidote to original sin, so that what our birth imposes upon us, our new birth relieves us from (this grace, however, takes away all the actual sins also that have been committed in thought, word, and deed): setting aside, then, this great act of favor, whence commences man's restoration, and in which all our guilt, both original and actual, is washed away, the rest of our life from the time that we have the use of reason provides constant occasion for the remission of sins, however great may be our advance in righteousness. For the sons of God, as long as they live in this body of death, are in conflict with death. And although it is truly said of them, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God", yet they are led by the Spirit of God, and as the sons of God advance towards God under this drawback, that they are led also by their own spirit, weighted as it is by the corruptible body; and that, as the sons of men, under the influence of human affections, they fall back to their old level, and so sin ...

Even crimes themselves, however great, may be remitted in the Holy Church; and the mercy of God is never to be despaired of by men who truly repent, each according to the measure of his sin. And in the act of repentance, where a crime has been committed of such a nature as to cut off the sinner from the body of Christ, we are not to take account so much of the measure of time as of the measure of sorrow; for a broken and a contrite heart God does not despise. But as the grief of one heart is frequently hid from another, and is not made known to others by words or other signs, when it is manifest to Him of whom it is said, "My groaning is not hid from You", those who govern the Church have rightly appointed times of penitence, that the Church in which the sins are remitted may be satisfied.

From St. Augustine's Enchiridion (64-65).