Benedictine nuns release Gregorian chants to help ease coronavirus isolation
A monastery of Benedictine nuns living in seclusion in southern France has opened its doors to allow recordings of its Gregorian chants to be made available to the outside world.
In what is believed to be the largest recording project ever conducted, the US musician John Anderson followed the 45-strong order for three years. He installed microphones in the abbey church of Notre-Dame de Fidélité de Jouques near Aix-en-Provence in southern France and captured the nuns singing their eight daily “offices”. The result is thousands of chants, the entire Gregorian repertoire, about 7,000 hours long.
The Gregorian chant originated in the 8th century and spread throughout Europe. It accords to St Benedict’s “rule”, in which the day is divided into balanced divisions of manual and intellectual work, prayer and rest, starting at 5am with the chanting of matins, and concluding with compline at 8pm, followed by the “great silence” of night.
You can access the Holy Week chants at the link in this paragraph:
They have ... allowed the release of a week’s worth of their chants https://www.neumz.com/
for the six days Christians refer to as holy week, preceding Easter
Sunday, the highlight of the religious calendar, when the chants have a
particular importance. The rest is to go live next month.
The singers here are the Benedictine Monks of Saint-Benoît-du-Lac.
This chant was originally appointed for "The Sunday Within the Octave of the Epiphany." It's gorgeously melismatic and extravagant, with a beautiful text:
Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel, qui facit mirabilia magna solus a saeculo. V. Suscipiant montes pacem populo tuo: et colles justitiam. Alleluia, alleluia. V. Jubilate Deo omnis terra: servite Domino in laetitia. Alleluia.
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone doth wonderful things.
V. Let the mountains receive peace for thy people: and the hills justice. Alleluia, alleluia.—
V. Sing joyfully to God all the earth: serve the Lord with gladness. Alleluia.
Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things.
The verse after that first section is taken from Psalm (71/)72:3:
The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness.
The Alleluia (Verse 2 as given above) is the famous incipit from Psalm (99/)100, along with more of Verse 1 and some of Verse 2:
O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands: serve the Lord with gladness.
Here's the chant score:
It's a bit complicated to explain the history of Epiphany and Baptism of
Our Lord in a couple of sentences, so I'll just cite the following
passages, which come from the Wikipedia entry for Baptism of the Lord, and its pre- and post-Vatican II history:
The Baptism of the Lord is observed as a distinct feast in the Roman rite, although it was originally one of three Gospel events marked by the feast of the Epiphany. Long after the visit of the Magi had in the West overshadowed the other elements commemorated in the Epiphany, Pope Pius XII instituted in 1955 a separate liturgical commemoration of the Baptism.
The Tridentine Calendar
had no feast of the Baptism of the Lord for almost four centuries. Then
the feast was instituted, under the denomination "Commemoration of the
Baptism of our Lord", for celebration on 13 January as a major double,
using for the Office and the Mass those previously said on the Octave
of the Epiphany, which Pius XII abolished; but if the Commemoration of
the Baptism of Our Lord occurred on Sunday, the Office and Mass were to
be those of the Feast of the Holy Family without any commemoration.[1]
In his revision of the calendar five years later, Pope John XXIII kept on 13 January the "Commemoration of the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ", with the rank of a second-class feast.
A mere 14 years after the institution of the feast, Pope Paul VI
set its date as the first Sunday after January 6 (as early as January 9
or as late as January 13) or, if in a particular country the Epiphany
is celebrated on January 7 or 8, on the following Monday.[2]
To give the flavor of what "The Sunday Within the Octave of the Epiphany" was like a hundred and fifty years ago, I'll quote from Dom Prosper Guéranger's Christmas volume on the Liturgical Year. Guéranger was Abbot of Solesmes Abbey, and he wrote extensively on the Liturgical Year (among other things); this volume was first published in 1867.
The Introit is this mystical one, taken perhaps partly from Isaiah 6:1 and perhaps partly from Revelation and Daniel 7 (see below for citations); the Psalm verse from the Jubilate Deo: (Psalm (99/)100):
In excelso throno vidi sedere virum, quem adorat multitudo Angelorum psallentes in unum : ecce cujus imperii nomen est in aeternum. Ps. Jubilate Deo omnis terra : servite Domino in laetitia.
I saw a man seated on a high throne, whom a multitude of Angels adored, singing all together : Behold him, whose name and empire are to last for ever. Ps. Sing joyfully to God, all the earth : serve ye the Lord with gladness.
Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands,
And these verses from Daniel 7 could very well be source inspirations, too:
9 “As I looked,
thrones were placed,
and the Ancient of Days took his seat;
his clothing was white as snow,
and the hair of his head like pure wool;
his throne was fiery flames;
its wheels were burning fire.
.....
13 “I saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
14
And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.)
Prior to the singing of the gradual, the priest prays a collect for the day, and then a collect for the commemoration of the Epiphany:
According to thy divine mercy, O Lord, receive the vows of thy people, who pour forth their prayers to thee : that they may know what their duty requireth of them, and be able to comply with what they know. Through etc.
O God, who by the direction of a star, didst this day manifest thy only Son to the Gentiles ; mercifully grant, that we, who now know thee by faith, may come at length to see the glory of thy Majesty. Through the same, etc.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
Guéranger then has this to say about the gradual; he introduces it here by first commenting on the Epistle above:
The Apostle invites us to make our offering to the new-born King, after the example of the Magi ; but, the offering which this Lord of all things asks of us, is not anything material or lifeless. He that is Life, gives his whole self to us ; let us, in return, present him our hearts, that is, a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God ; whose service may be reasonable, that is, whose obedience to the divine will may be accompanied by a formal intention of offering itself to its Creator. Here again, let us imitate the Magi, who went back another way into their own country — let us not adopt the ideas of this world, for the world is the covert enemy of our beloved King. Let us reform our worldly prudence according to the divine wisdom of Him, who may well be our guide, seeing he is the Eternal Wisdom of the Father. Let us understand, that no man can be wise without Faith, which reveals to us that we must all be united by love, so as to form one body in Christ, partaking of his life, his wisdom, his light, and his kingly character.
In the chant which follows the Epistle, the
Church returns to her praise of the ineffable wonders of a God with us :
Justice and righteousness have come down from heaven, to take up their
abode on our mountains and hills.
And then, immediately following this gradual came the reading about the event in the Temple, from Jesus' childhood. It's taken from Luke Chapter 2, vv 42-52:
And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom. And when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in the group they went a day's journey, but then they began to search for him among their relatives and acquaintances, and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, searching for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when his parents saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?” And they did not understand the saying that he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
Guéranger comments:
Thus, O Jesus! didst thou come down from heaven to teach us. The tender age of Childhood, which thou didst take upon thyself, is no hindrance to the ardour of thy desire that we should know the one only God, who made all things, and thee, his Son, whom he sent to us. When laid in the Crib, thou didst instruct the Shepherds by a mere look ; when swathed in thy humble swaddling-clothes, and subjected to the voluntary silence thou hadst imposed on thyself, thou didst reveal to the Magi the light they sought in following the Star. When twelve years old, thou explainest to the Doctors of Israel the Scriptures which bear testimony to thee. Thou gradually dispellest the shadows of the Law by thy presence and thy words. In order to fulfil the commands of thy heavenly Father, thou dost not hesitate to occasion sorrow to the heart of thy Mother, by thus going in quest of souls that need enlightening. Thy love of man will pierce that tender Heart of Mary with a still sharper sword, when she shall behold thee hanging on the Cross, and expiring in the midst of crudest pain. Blessed be thou, sweet Jesus, in these first Mysteries of thine Infancy, wherein thou already showest thyself devoted to us, and leaving the company of thy Blessed Mother for that of sinful men, who will one day conspire thy death. During the Offertory, the Church resumes her canticles of ioy; the presence of the Divine Infant fills her with joy.
The Offertory which follows is the first few verses of Psalm (99/)100 again, the beginning of the Jubilate Deo:
Sing joyfully to the Lord, all the earth : serve ye the Lord with gladness : present yourselves to him with transports of joy : for the Lord is God.
And then the Communion song refers back to the Gospel:
Fili quid fecisti nobis sic? Ego et pater tuus dolentes quaerebamus te. Quid est quod me quaerebatis? Nesciebatis, quia in his, quae patris mei sunt oportet me esse?
Son, why hast thou done so with us? I and thy father have sought thee with sorrow, — And why did you seek me? Did you not know that I must be about the concerns of my Father?
So there was a lot going on in those days, on this Sunday! I actually prefer it this way, personally; I love it when there are multiple themes on a single feast day. These tend to draw together disparate Scriptural themes in very interesting and enlightening ways. And so interesting that the Jubilate Deo plays so prominent a role on this Sunday; it's found in three of the five propers on the day.
I wish I knew more about this chant, though. I looked at Dom Dominic Johner's commentary on the chants, published in 1934, but it is not there; he wrote on the "Feast of the Holy Family" (which has an entirely different set of proper chants), but not on this "Sunday Within the Octave of Epiphany."
The Feast of the Holy Family is a liturgical celebration in the Catholic Church
in honor of Jesus of Nazareth, his mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and
his foster father, Saint Joseph, as a family. The primary purpose of
this feast is to present the Holy Family as a model for Christian
families.[1]
From the 17th century, the feast has been celebrated at a local and regional level and at that level was promoted by Pope Leo XIII. In 1921, Pope Benedict XV made it part of the General Roman Calendar and set on the Sunday within the Octave of the Epiphany; that is to say, on the Sunday between January 7 through January 13, all inclusive (see General Roman Calendar of 1954).[3][4] The 1962 Roman Missal, whose use is still authorized in the circumstances indicated in the 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, follows the General Roman Calendar of 1960, which has the celebration on that date.
The 1969 revision of the General Roman Calendar moved the celebration to Christmastide, assigning it to the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas, that is, the Sunday between Christmas Day and New Year's Day (both exclusive), or if both Christmas Day and the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God are Sundays, on 30 December (always a Friday in such years). When not celebrated on a Sunday, it is not a holy day of obligation.[5]
Formerly, the Sunday within the Octave of Christmas was in fact
celebrated only if it fell on 29, 30 or 31 December, since it gave way
to the higher ranked feasts of Saint Stephen, Saint John the Apostle and the Holy Innocents. The Feast of the Holy Family that has replaced it outranks these three feasts.
This explains the absence of "The Sunday Within the Octave of Epiphany"
in Dom Johner's book. Too bad; his comments are always so interesting
and valuable.
You can see all the propers at this online Manuscript from Cluny ("Graduale et prosarium ad usum Cluniacensem"),
published between 0975-1100. It's in the old staffless notation, and looks as
complex and melismatic as the one in the video above. Looks like this
is public domain, and I can use it here, so here's the first page; this
chant begins at the bottom of the page.
Source gallica.bnf.fr / BnF
Looks to me as if they used a different Introit for this day ("Venite, adoremus Deum et procidamus ante Dominum : ploremus ante eum, qui fecit nos : quia ipse est Dominus Deus noster"
from Psalm (94/)95?), but that all the rest of the propers are the
same. That is interesting, and I'm going to see if I can find out where
the Trent introit came from.
In columbae specie is the ninth responsory of Epiphany Matins in the Sarum Breviary; in the Roman Breviary, it's used as the second responsory. It's sung here beautifully by the Schola Hungarica, with Janka Szendrei and László Dobszay.
Here are the words of the Responsory itself, in Latin and English, from Divinum Officium:
R. In colúmbæ spécie Spíritus Sanctus visus est, Patérna vox audíta est: * Hic est Fílius meus diléctus, in quo mihi bene complácui. V. Cæli apérti sunt super eum, et vox Patris intónuit. R. Hic est Fílius meus diléctus, in quo mihi bene complácui.
R. The Holy Ghost appeared in a bodily shape like a dove, and the voice of the Father was heard: * This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased. V. The heavens were opened unto him, and, lo, the voice of the Father was heard, like unto thunder, saying: R. This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.
The text is taken from Luke 3:22, part of the story of the Baptism of Jesus by John in the River Jordan - one of events historically celebrated on the Feast of the Epiphany:
15 As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
18 So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. 19 But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, 20 added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.
21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
The singers have inserted an extra-responsorial, prose-like text into the middle of this chant, as you probably noted. It's called Quem non prevalent, and was actually used at the offices on Epiphany in some places. (The general subtitle to the CD above is "Gregorian Chants from Austria," so I'm assuming for now that is primarily where this was used. And indeed there is something about it in this paper titled "The Identification of Quem Non Prevalent in Klosterneuburg, Augustiner-Chorherrenstift-Bibliothek, 1013." So there's the Austrian connection; I still need to read this paper, though.)
Here's the chant score of the Responsory itself, from the Sarum Rite website; as you will see, the text is slightly different:
R. In colúmbæ spécie Spíritus Sanctus visus est, † Patérna vox audíta est: * Hic est Fílius meus diléctus, in quo mihi bene complácui. ‡Ipsum audíte. V.Vox Dómini super aquas Deus majestátis intónuit : Dóminus super aquas multas. †Patérna. V.Glória. ‡Ipsum.
R. IN the form of a dove * the Ho-ly Spi- rit was seen : † The voice of the Father was heard, * This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased. ‡Hear ye him. V.The voice of the Lord is upon the waters ; the God of majesty hath thundered : the Lord is upon many waters. †The voice. V. Glory be. ‡Hear.
This alternate Sarum verse is taken, verbatim, from Psalm 29:3:
3 The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the Lord is upon many waters.
Looks to me that the Roman Breviary text may be a nod towards the Baptism story in Matthew 3; it contains the same reference to the "heavens opening":
The heavens were opened unto him, and, lo, the voice of the Father was heard, like unto thunder, saying:
According to Cantus database, this Responsory was used in many places on the Octave of Epiphany, rather than on Epiphany itself (as far as I can tell so far). Interesting to note, too, that it is Luke's genalogy - which is recounted immediately following the Baptism story in Luke - that is sung at the end of Epiphany Matins in the Sarum Rite. I would bet that accounts for In columbae specie being used as the ninth, rather than the second, responsory, in the Sarum Breviary.
Sr. Fidelis, of the Community of Jesus, writes on this Responsory; as you can see, she is referring to as a responsory "for the octave of Epiphany," which "brings us right to the scene of the Baptism of Jesus," as the modern calendar celebrates these two (now separate) feasts:
One of the loveliest Responsories for the octave of Epiphany brings us right to the scene of the Baptism of Jesus. The text is as follows: “In the form of a dove the holy Spirit was seen; the Father’s voice was heard: ‘This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.’ V. The heavens opened over him and the voice of the Father thundered.”
The Responsory follows a particular pattern: the first section of the piece is chanted, after which a verse is sung, usually by a single voice. Then all begin at a point halfway through the first section, and chant to the end.
This Mode 2 Responsory has an almost plaintive quality to it. You’ll notice the FA clef, so often used with Mode 2 chants. The high point of the chant comes on the text paterna vox — the voice of the Father. If you look closely at the chant below while listening to the recording, you’ll notice that in some instances, the notes differ from what is written in square notation. This particular piece was chanted and recorded according to the ancient neumes, taken from the Hartker Antiphoner — a manuscript from around the early 11th century! Listen to it a second time, while looking at the ancient neumes written above the square notation, and you’ll “see” what you are hearing! It is fascinating to note the slight variation in the melody and how it has changed over the centuries.
There is also an mp3 at that page.
I cannot find a good
.jpg representation of this Matins chant at the Cantus database! Each
available image is the chant as used on the Octave of Epiphany, or else
used in another way on Epiphany. I will have to take a look at that Octave usage, too, to see if it's exactly the same chant as this one.
But here's a wonderful Battesimo di Cristo I haven't seen before, from around 1475; it's credited to both Andrea Verrocchio and Leonardo da Vinci:
Iacet granum oppressum palea is the Third Responsory at Matins in the Sarum Breviary for the Feast of St. Thomas Becket, December 29. But it is also used, sometimes in procession, at the end of (what would normally be Second) Vespers of the Feast of the Holy Innocents - that is, Vespers of the day before the Feast of St. Thomas Becket - and in a very interesting way. More about that below.
First, the chant, beautifully sung here by Egeria Voices, a Spanish a capella group:
Here are the words, in Latin and English:
R. Jacet granum oppressum palea, Justus coesus pravorum framea, Coelum domo commutans lutea. V. Cadit custos vitis in vinea, Dux in castris, oultor in area, Coelum domo commutans lutea.
R. The grain of wheat lies smothered by the chaff,
the just man slain by the sword of sinners.
Changing his house of clay for heaven.
V. The vine-keeper dies in his vineyard,
the general in his camp, the husbandman on the place of his toil.
Changing his house of clay for heaven.
St. Thomas Becket was the Archbishop of Canterbury who was murdered by soldiers of King Henry II of England in Canterbury Cathedral on December 29 in the year 1170. This was an event that shocked England and all of Europe, and Thomas was canonized only three years later. You can read a full account of the event and its repercussions at the British Museum website. Here's a quote from that page:
Becket’s death and subsequent miracles transformed Canterbury Cathedral into one of the most important pilgrimage destinations in Europe. In 1220 his body was moved from the crypt to a glittering new shrine in a purpose-built chapel upstairs in the Cathedral. Geoffrey Chaucer famously captured something of the atmosphere of pilgrimage to this shrine in his Canterbury Tales. In death Becket remained a figure of opposition to unbridled power and became seen as the quintessential defender of the rights of the Church. To this end you can find images of his murder in churches across Latin Christendom, from Germany and Spain, to Italy and Norway. Becket was, and remains, a truly European saint. His relics at Canterbury were visited by people from across the continent until 1538, when Henry VIII would label him a traitor, order the destruction of his shrine and try to wipe him from history altogether. That, however, is a story for another time.
Here's a page containing this chant, from the Antiphonarium Massiliense, an Antiphoner from Marseille cathedral. It's from the late 12th century, dated to between 1190 and 1200.
The week following Christmas is packed with Feast Days: St. Stephen on December 26; St. John the Evangelist on December 27; Holy Innocents on December 28; St. Thomas Becket on December 29. The liturgies of the week are therefore very complex; each of these feasts has its own antiphons, prayers, responsories, and hymns - and each day includes a sort of First/Second-Vespers-Memorial-mashup of the Feast itself with each following feast day. (These seem sometimes to be referred to as "Memorials," even though Memorials are - as their name would imply - normally a hearkening-back to a feast day that's already happened. Normally major feasts have a First and Second Vespers, too - but one day just tumbles into the next during this week, so it's a bit confusing, and hard to know what to call Vespers during this time!) There are other ordinary memorials throughout the week, too: of Christmas every day, and also memorials for each prior feast. And then each of these feast days has its octave one week later, most falling within the twelve days. It's all very complicated - made more so in emotional resonance by the fact that three of four of these major feast are martyrs' days. In any case it is a very, very rich set of offices.
As I noted above, this chant, Iacet granum oppressum palea, is introduced at the end of Second Vespers of Holy Innocents - then used again at Matins of St. Thomas Becket a few hours later. And, at that First/Second Vespers/Memorial mashup, this chant is also associated with a "Procession to the Altar of St. Thomas."
The set of screenshots below comes from Volume 2 of Prosper Guéranger's "The Liturgical Year"; this Volume contains commentary on the Christmastide liturgies. (It's actually just the first volume of what Guéranger classified as Christmas liturgies. Volume 1 begins at Christmas Eve, and runs through the Vigil of the Epiphany; Volume 2 begins on Epiphany, and runs through and includes Candlemas, and then the following Sundays through Quinquagesima.)
Anyway, here's Guéranger's take on this Responsory and its function; note, too, that the Responsory-plus-Prose is entirely in rhyme in the Latin:
From the day when Henry II. bestowed the crown of martyrdom on his primate, to the day when a still more ferocious Henry rifled his tomb, and threw his sacred ashes to the four winds, no more popular name was to be found in the Calendar of English Saints than that of Thomas Becket.
His festivals, therefore, as may well be imagined, were celebrated with especial splendour, and a more than wonted beauty is to be met with in his offices. Of these the Sarum Breviary gives three varieties.
The office for his festival proper, observed on December 29th, the solemn commemoration for the feast of the translation of his relics, and a weekly commemoration, or, as we should say, votive office.
The celebration of the great festival, December 29th, commenced on the day preceding the feast itself with what was called a memorial.
This memorial was made in two ways. In certain churches, probably the more important, immediately after vespers, and without changing their vestments, the clergy and choir proceeded, in solemn procession, nevertheless, without candles in their hands, as the rubric expressly states, to the altar of St. Thomas, and, as they went, they hymned their hero's victory. "The wheaten grain lies prone before the flail," runs the quaintly beautiful sequence with which Sarum honoured the greatest of England's saints. "The righteous man, hewn down by impious swords, thereby exchanging squalid earth for Heaven. The vineyard's keeper falls beside the vine. The captain on the battle-field lies low, the husbandman within his threshing-floor. From squalid earth, Christ's martyr mounts to Heaven."*
Having reached the altar, this as well as the image of the saint was incensed by the officiating priest, while the rest of the clergy and the choir, grouped around, continued their triumphant canticle:
Sound ye the gladsome trump of victory,
For this, that God's own vineyard might be free,
*R. Jacet granum oppressum palea,
Justus coesus pravorum framea,
Coelum domo commutans lutea.
V. Cadit custos vitis in vinea,
Dux in castris, oultor in area,
Coelum domo commutans lutea.
Which, clad in human flesh, Himself had freed
By dying on the purple blood-stained cross.
The savage beast of prey becomes a lamb,
The shepherd's crnel death converts his foe,
Christ's marble pavement flows all red with blood.
Thus Thomas wins the martyr's laurel crown,
And like the wheaten grain, from husk set free,
Is garnered in the storehouse of the King.*
Then was intoned the V. Ora pro nobis Beate Thoma, &c., with its accompanying R., and afterwards followed the Collect, the same which we still use.
The memorial completed, the clergy returned to the choir; but great was the devotion of the ancient Church of England to the Mother of God. She loved to associate the name of Mary, with all her joys and all her sorrows. In redeundo, runs the rubric, dicitur Responsorium vel Antiphona de Sancta Maria.
In those churches in which it was not customary to have a procession on St. Thomas's Eve, the following antiphon was substituted for the above prose:
The watchful pastor, slain amid his flock,
Their peace procures, by pouring out his blood.
O joyous sorrow! O most mournful joy!
The sheep draw breath, the shepherd lyeth low,
And weeping Mother Church applauds a son
"Who, by his death a victor, mounts to Heaven. +
All the antiphons at this office are rhythmical and rhyming.
Those at Matins form a sort of metrical legend of the Saint's life, the chief characteristic of which is quaintness. Several of them, however, are not without a certain naive beauty. Take, for example, the ninth, which sings of the happiness of the place and of the church, in which the memory of Thomas dwells, of the country which gave him birth, and of the land which afforded him shelter during his exile:
Ant. 9.—Felix locus, felix ecclesia:
In qua Thomse viget memoria:
Felix terra quae dedit proesulem
Felix ilia quae fovit exulem:
Felix pater, sucurre miseris:
Ut felices jungamur superis.
________________________________________________
* Prosa.
Clangat pastor in tuba cornea.
Ut libera sit Christi vinea,
Quam, assumptae sub carnis trabea,
Liberavit cruce purpurea,
Adversatrix ovis erronea
Fit pastoris ccede sanguinea,
Pavimenta Christi mamorea
Sacro madent cruore rubea.
Mart ir vitse donatus laurea,
Velut granum purgatum palea,
In divina transfertur horrea
Curium donio commutans lutea.
+ Pastor caesus in gregis medio
Pacem emit cruoris precio.
O loetus dolor in tristi gaudio,
Grex respirat pastore mortuo.
Plangens plaudit mater in filio,
Quia vivit victor sub gladio.
Lots more on all the offices of the day at that article! It's clear that this was a very important day, in the middle of a very important week; the offices are very ornate and rich in every way.
Here is the entire Responsory-plus-Prose / Procession from the Holy Innocents page at The Sarum Rite English Scholarly Breviary; it immediately follows Memorials for Nativity, St. Stephen, and St. John the Evangelist:
At some point I'll create images for the full Procession score in Latin, too, and will post it here. Also, I would love to find a recording of the Prose section of the chant used at the Vespers memorial; if I too, I'll post that here, too.
Ecce Dies Veniunt is the ninth responsory at Mattins on the First Sunday of Advent in the Roman Breivary. But it's sung at First Vespers on the First Sunday of Advent in the Sarum Breviary. Either way, it was clearly an important chant.
Here it's sung by Gregoriana.
Here are the words, in Latin and English, from Divinum Officium:
R. Ecce dies véniunt, dicit Dóminus, et suscitábo David germen justum: et regnábit rex, et sápiens erit, et fáciet judícium et justítiam in terra: * Et hoc est nomen quod vocábunt eum: * Dóminus justus noster. V. In diébus illis salvábitur Juda, et Israël habitábit confidénter. R. Et hoc est nomen quod vocábunt eum: V. Glória Patri, et Fílio, * et Spirítui Sancto. R. Dóminus justus noster.
R. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch; and a King shall reign in wisdom and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth: * And this is His name whereby He shall be called: * The Lord our Righteous one. V. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely. R. And this is His name whereby He shall be called. V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, * and to the Holy Ghost. R. The Lord our Righteous one.
Here is the chant score, from The Sarum Rite, at McMaster University, Toronto. There are some melodic differences between this score and what's sung on the video above.
This Responsory is also listed in Cantus Database as a Responsory for other Advent Sundays. So it appears it was used in various ways and at various times in different locations and at different times.
Here's an image of the chant as used as an Advent 1 Vespers Responsory, from the Antiphonarium Benedictinum (1400) used at the Abbey of Sankt Lambrecht (Steiermark, Austria).
Here's another one from Austria (Klosterneuburg), and about the same period; it's another Vespers Responsory for Advent 1:
This is from a "Late-thirteenth century Cistercian antiphoner (dated c. 1295) from Lubiąż in modern-day south-western Poland (German: Leubus). 272 folios. Green five-line staff with a red F-line and a yellow C-line." It was used as a Matins Reponsory on Advent 3.
And this earlier one comes from a "Cistercian antiphoner from the Abbey of St. Mary of Morimondo in the diocese of Milan. Second half of the twelfth century (up to 1174)." It's written in staffless musical notation, as you can see; it was also used as a Matins Reponsory on Advent 3.
This beautiful hymn was appointed for First Vespers of Christmas in the Sarum Breviary (although sung to a different melody), and is today used in the Roman Catholic Liturgy of the Hours at the Office of Readings from December 17 through December 24, which puts it on the same schedule at the Great O Antiphons at Vespers. (It was not used in the Roman Breviary, however.)
The hymn text is very old: from the fourth century and attributed to St. Ambrose. Here's a sung arrangement of the hymn accompanied by soprano saxophone; as you will hear, the chant choir sings two different and distinct melodies for the various verses:
All of this is a good intro to something I've wondered about since first posting on it years ago! The first melody is a straightforward Gregorian chant tune; the second is a tune from a 16th-century German Chorale ("Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland" - essentially the same phrase in German translation) written, possibly, by Martin Luther (or possibly by Johann Walter, his collaborator).
The question is: where did the second melody come from, and how is it related to the first, Gregorian chant tune? I had for a long time thought that the two tunes were simply two versions of the original Gregorian melody - or else that one was an Ambrosian tune and the other was Gregorian. But the reality is apparently otherwise.
And this is the second melody, as written out by Martin Luther or his editors ("Martin Luther und andere") for the Erfurt Enchiridion, the second Lutheran hymnal published in 1524:
This melody is first documented as a Roman Catholic Latin hymn based upon Gregorian chant in manuscript form in Einsiedeln (Schwyz) around 1120. The same melody source served as a basis for three important chorale melodies: “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland”, ‘Verleih uns Frieden gnädiglich” (Luther’s CT based upon the antiphon ‘Da pacem Domine”) and Martin Luther’s CT,“Erhalt uns, Herr, bei deinem Wort”.
>>The Lutheran Reformation in the early 16th century led to the creation of a new repertory of sacred music based on the chorale. Chorales were initially sung by the congregation in unison and unaccompanied. Most were adapted from chant, from German devotional songs (many of which were themselves reworkings of chant) and from secular songs, or were composed using conventional melodic types and formulae. Techniques of adaptation ranged from simple contrafactum to ingenious reworkings, such as Luther's reshaping of the Gregorian hymn Veni Redemptor gentium as the chorale Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland.<<
Burkholder presents examples of the Gregorian chant and “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland” in close proximity so that the similarities and differences can become apparent:
(I have searched online for the Einsiedeln manuscript, but haven't been successful in finding a scored version of the hymn so far; I am still looking for it, though, and will post it if I find one. However, this snippet from the Bach Cantata website clearly implies that the chant melody is directly related to the chorale melody.)
Luther translated the seven stanzas of Ambrose's “Veni, Redemptor, gentium” fairly literally, characteristically adding a doxology, but he changed the meter from basically Long Meter (8888, sometimes with lines of 9) to 7777 (with some elisions).
The same source continues in re: the melody:
The Tune
Luther altered the tune that went with the Latin text. He thought that simply to transfer chant tunes associated with Latin texts to German translations would create a faulty imitation that would not sing well. He wanted a hymn's tune to grow out of the language one was using and to reflect its particular accents and inflections. Text and tune were to form an organic whole. A tune that worked for a Latin text might not work for a German one, which meant that some revisions might have to be made.
Luther left the melodic contour of this tune as it was, but changed other things. First, the five melismas in the chant tune were reduced in the German version to two unobtrusive ones that sing easily. The tune became more syllabic. Second, Luther gave the second phrase a more decisive cadence. Third, the upward leap of a third in the first line was turned into a fourth. These alterations propelled the tune forward with a more proclamatory push and made it both easier to learn and more congregational.
A fourth alteration may seem subtle and not even recognized at first, but it is telling: the first line was repeated as the last. This move reflected the meaning of the text and its structure. The hymn made a turn forward and back at stanzas 4 and 5. After marveling at the wonder of it all and preparing the way for Christ's coming in the first stanzas, stanzas 4 and 5 led from God to humanity and then back to God as a result of the victory Christ wins. Luther's alterations not only moved the tune from meditatively prayerful to more vigorously proclamatory and made the tune's musical exegesis into a bold chorale that joyfully celebrates the grace of God; they also mirrored the meaning of the text by matching its structure.
The melody whose adventures I want to follow in some detail belongs to a much later period. The words of the Advent hymn ‘Veni, redemptor gentium' go back to the fourth century but the melody seems to be no older than the early twelfth. All the same, it has come down to us in several minor variant forms: for instance, the word 'ostende' is sung in one version to three repeated notes, in another to three notes ascending scalewise. But it was a much loved melody, particularly in Germany; it is significant that the two oldest manuscripts in which it is found are both German, and four centuries later the German Protestants lost no time in providing it with German words. The Protestant extremist Thomas Müntzer published in 1524 a translation which begins:
O Herr, Erlöser alles Volks,
komm, zeig uns die Geburt deins Sohns,
es wundern sich all Creaturen
dass Christ also ist Mensch worden.
In 1531 it appeared in one of the German song-books of the Bohemian Brethren, Michael Weisse's Ein Nem Gesengbuchlen, with a completely new text. Both these German texts were fitted to the plainsong with only minimal changes in the actual notes, though even the fitting of different vowels and consonants to plainsong produces a certain change of character. Here are (a) the plainsong in probably its earliest surviving form,* (b) the version with Müntzer's words:
Luther went farther than this. In the same year as Müntzer, 1524, he printed in his so-called Achtliederbuch not only the translation which is sung to this day, 'Nun komm der Heiden Heiland', but a metrical modification of the melody which removes it from the sphere of plainsong to that of German song. This version was not meant to be sung by a monastic choir, as the plainsong was, nor by a little sectarian body such as a congregation of Bohemian Brethren. We know fairly well how the early Lutheran hymns were sung: not harmonized or by a trained choir or supported by an organ, but by the whole congregration in unison led by a choir of schoolboys who had had the hymns drilled into them by rote. The boys were sometimes scattered among the adult congregation; sometimes the cantor himself stood in the middle of the church. In these conditions the flexibility of plainsong was impossible; something firm, steady, and square-cut like German secular song of the time was needed. (Why German secular song tended to be square-cut is a matter that will have to be dealt with later.) The first note of a hymn-tune is often written as a long one, presumably to give the congregation a moment to pick up the pitch sounded by the cantor and his boys; the phrase are separated by pauses. But Luther's substitution of firmly stressed, rhyming heptasyllables for the smooth octosyllabic Latin verse necessitated changes in the melody itself.
This last article goes into quite a lot of detail, and IMO is very worth reading in its entirety.
From all this, a couple of things seem very clear:
This hymn melody is not as old as I had thought. One source says it's from twelfth-century Einsiedeln; another says fourteenth century. (These two researchers could have been looking at two versions of the same chant manuscript, separated by two centuries; this might account for the difference.)
There were never two different chant melodies, but only one! Luther (or Walter) reworked a chant, changing the meter so that it would work well with a German translation of the text. And that is quite interesting, because on first (or tenth!) hearing, the two tunes do not seem very alike, or in fact in any way related.
Interestingly, a contemporary composer, Andrew Smith, has set this hymn in a similar way. He has used the two different melodies as sung in the video above - and added his own composition as well, using Luther's tune for the verses sung in English. It's sung here beautifully by the wonderful New York Polyphony.
For the record: the Sarum Breviary used a different melody altogether. From this blog's Sarum Christmas Office page.
Benedicite, omnia opera Domini is the Lauds Canticle for Sundays and Feast Days. This version uses the Pentecost antiphon, Fontes, et omnia. It's sung by the Schola Liturgiczna, Wyższego Seminarium Duchownego Zakonu Paulinów (The Liturgical Schola Of the Major Seminary of the Pauline Order), based in Krakow, Poland. Their website is linked below the video, as is their Facebook page.
From the YouTube page, some information and the words to the canticle:
"Ant. 2 Fontes, et omnia. Benedicite, omnia opera Domini. Canticum Dn 3, 57 – 88. 56" w wykonaniu kleryckiej paulińskiej scholi liturgicznej. Gregorian chant - Ant. 2 Fontes, et omnia. Benedicite, omnia opera Domini. Canticum Dn 3, 57 – 88. 56.
Chorał gregoriański o Duchu Świętym. Gregorian Chant for the Solemnity of Pentecost. Jutrznia i Msza św. z Uroczystości Zesłania Ducha Świętego w wykonaniu Scholi Gregoriańskiej kleryków Wyższego Seminarium Duchownego Zakonu Paulinów w Krakowie.
Ant. 2 − Canticum Dn 3, 57 – 88. 56 Fontes, et omnia quae moventur in aquis, hymnum dicite Deo, alleluia.
1. Benedicite, omnia opera Domini, Domino; laudate et superexaltate eum in saecula.
2. Benedicite, angeli Domini, Domino; benedicite, caeli, Domino.
3. Benedicite, aquae omnes quae super caelos sunt, Domino; benedicite, omnes virtutes Domini, Domino.
4. Benedicite, sol et luna, Domino; benedicite, stellae caeli, Domino.
5. Benedicite, omnis imber et ros, Domino; benedicite, omnes spiritus Dei, Domino.
6. Benedicite, ignis et aestus, Domino; benedicite, frigus et aestus, Domino.
7. Benedicite, rores et pruina, Domino; benedicite, gelu et frigus, Domino.
8. Benedicite, glacies et nives, Domino; benedicite, noctes et dies, Domino.
9. Benedicite, lux et tenebrae, Domino; benedicite, fulgura et nubes, Domino.
10. Benedicite, terra Dominum; laudet et superexaltet eum in saecula.
11. Benedicite, montes et colles, Domino; benedicite, universa germinantia in terra, Domino.
12. Benedicite, fontes, Domino; benedicite, maria et flumina, Domino.
13. Benedicite, cete et omnia quae moventur in aquis, Domino; benedicite, omnes volucres caeli, Domino.
14. Benedicite, omnes bestiae et pecora, Domino; benedicite, filii hominum, Domino.
15. Benedicat Israel Domino; laudet et superexaltet eum in saecula.
16. Benedicite, sacerdotes Domini, Domino; benedicite, servi Domini, Domino.
17. Benedicite, spiritus et animae iustorum, Domino; benedicite, sancti et humiles corde, Domino.
18. Benedicite, Anania, Azaria, Misael, Domino; laudate et superexaltate eum in saecula.
19. Benedicamus Patrem et Filium cum Sancto Spiritu; laudemus et superexultemus eum in saecula.
20. Benedictus es, Domine, in firmamento caeli; et laudabilis et gloriosus et superexaltatus in saecula.
O all ye Works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord :
praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Angels of the Lord, bless ye the Lord : praise him &c.
O ye Heavens, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Waters that be above the Firmament, bless ye the Lord :
O all ye Powers of the Lord, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Sun and Moon, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Stars of Heaven, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Showers and Dew, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Winds of God, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Fire and Heat, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Winter and Summer, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Dews and Frosts, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Frost and Cold, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Ice and Snow, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Nights and Days, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Light and Darkness, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Lightnings and Clouds, bless ye the Lord :
O let the Earth bless the Lord:
yea, let it praise him, and magnify him for ever.
O ye Mountains and Hills, bless ye the Lord : praise him, and magnify…
O all ye Green Things upon the Earth, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Wells, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Seas and Floods, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Whales, and all that move in the Waters, bless ye the Lord :
O all ye Fowls of the Air, bless ye the Lord :
O all ye Beasts and Cattle, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Children of Men, bless ye the Lord :
O let Israel bless the Lord :
O ye Priests of the Lord, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Servants of the Lord, bless ye the Lord :
O ye Spirits and Souls of the Righteous, bless ye the Lord :
O ye holy and humble Men of heart, bless ye the Lord :
O Ananias, Azarias and Misael, bless ye the Lord :
The Pentecost antiphon, sung before and after the Canticle, is this one:
Fontes, et ómnia quæ movéntur in aquis, hymnum dícite Deo, allelúja.
In English, it's:
See ye fountains, * and all that move in the waters, ascribe ye praise to God, alleluia.
More about the Benedicite, from the St. Bede Blog (in re: the Episcopal Church's 1979 Book of Common Prayer):
The Benedicite comes from one of the additions to the book of Daniel that is found in the Greek Old Testament, but not in the Hebrew version. It’s best understood as an expansion of the content and theme of Psalm 148 where all creation is called upon to worship and give glory to God. In the narrative, this is a song put into the mouth of Daniel’s three companions which they sang in the midst of the fiery furnace. As a result, sometimes this will be referred to as “the song of the three young men.” In the former prayer books, this canticle was used as the first canticle during penitential seasons when the Te Deum was suppressed. That’s not because there’s anything penitential about it—it’s one of the most joyful canticles around! Rather it’s because this was the second canticle found in the pre-Reformation prymers and Books of Hours; if the Te Deum—which was the first canticle in them—was dropped, this one was next in line. Hence, the tradition grew that the Benedicite should replace the Te Deum, and it subsequently entered and formed the prayer book tradition.
Here's a beauty of a polyphonic composition! Herbert Sumsion's setting of the Benedicte, in B flat - written for Choral Mattins, no doubt. I like Sumsion, and I like this piece.
An interesting piece of information about the Sumsion, from the YouTube page:
From an edition of John Betjeman’s BBC radio series “Britain’s Cathedrals and their Music”, broadcast on 11 February 1966. This is the only recording in the Archive of Herbert Sumsion conducting one of his own works.
Here's Henry Purcell's gorgeous setting, also in B flat:
Ralph Vaughan Williams set this Canticle, too as have quite a number of other composers. I don't believe I've ever heard it used, but that is because Choral Mattins is becoming a rare service.
Here's Vaughan Williams' setting; it's clearly not liturgical. It's prefaced with another text, and written for orchestra and choir; it's also quite long.
Here's something interesting, for Lent: a "short responsory" that comes from Medieval Hungary. It's beautifully sung here by the Schola Hungarica:
The text is taken from Psalm 12/(13):4-5/(3-4), and Psalm 87/(88):2:
12:4b Illumina oculos meos, ne unquam obdormiam in morte, 12:5a Ne quando dicat inimicus meus. Praevalui adversus eum.
2. Domine, Deus salutis meae, in die clamavi et nocte coram te.
13:3b Lighten mine eyes, that I sleep not in death.
13:4a Lest my enemy say "I have prevailed against him."
2. O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee.
Perfect for Lent! But, this text is nowhere to be found in the Trent Breviary. The CD lists it as included in "The Istanbul Antiphonary," which I have not found online (although I have found numerous references to it). I need to look more at this.
Fortunately, Cantus Database lists it as a Compline Responsory, found 18 times in various manuscripts, most from Eastern Europe: Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, etc. It's used, variously, on the first four Sundays of Lent. (In one exception below, St. Gall, it's listed as "uncertain usage" for feasts of the BVM. So not much help there.)
I've copied the concordance table from Cantus here for easier reading:
The usual "Short Responsory" at Compline in the Trent Breviary (and others) is this:
Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit. – Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
You have redeemed us, Lord God of truth. – Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. – Into your hands, Lord, I commend my spirit.
I wonder if Illumina oculos replaced it during Lent, in some of these Eastern European breviaries? Would be very interesting to know, so here's another thing I'll have to investigate.
Here's one from the Antiphonarium Benedictinum (1400) (Austria), which doesn't have the same restriction. The text does not seem to be complete here, though:
Here's the St. Gall/BVM version; it's written in the old-style chant notation, without staff, so hard to tell - but it seems to me to be a similar melody, with the same rise and fall on "oculos." The St. Gall MS is from the 13th Century.
St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 388, p. 476 – Antiphonary
