The Gradual for the Baptism of Our Lord: Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel ("Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel")

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.

The first part of the chant comes from Psalm (71)/72, verse 18:

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.

(Isaiah 6:1 is this:

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.

Revelation 4:2:

At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne.

Revelation 5:11:

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.

Then the Epistle is read; it comes from Romans 12, vv 1-5:

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 recent addition to the calendar as well.  Here's that entry from Wkipedia:

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.

EDIT:  Just now found a slightly more recent ("before 1160-1170") manuscript from the Abbey of Bellelay in Switzerland that uses the In excelso throno Introit, so it's at least that old.

Michael Haydn apparently set this text, but there is no video recording of it online.

An Epiphany Responsory: In columbae specie ("In the form of a dove")

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:

Here are the words from the Sarum Breviary, in Latin and English; I've bolded the section that departs from the text used in the Roman Breviary. 

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:

A Responsory for the Feast of St. Thomas Becket: Iacet granum oppressum palea ("The grain of wheat lies smothered by the chaff")

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:

Here's a full description of the celebration of the feast, from an 1894 publication of The Dublin Review, in an article titled The Ancient Offices of Some of England's Saints.

S. Thomas Of Canterbury.

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:

The Responsory chant itself was used in many places, from England to France to Czechia to Hungary.  See the full list  of concordences at the University of Waterloo chant database.

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.

More about Veni Redemptor Gentium ("Come, Savior of the Nations")

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.

To start: here is the Gregorian chant score; this is the first melody sung by the choir:

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:

Here's the Bach Cantata website on the Chorale melody (as used by Bach in various of his works):

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.<<

J. Peter Burkholder in Grove Music Online, ©Oxford University Press 2006, acc. 5/26/06

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.)


Then there is this, from the Encyclopedia of Martin Luther and the Reformation, Volume 2. edited by Mark A. Lamport:

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.

And finally there's this analysis from The Tradition of Western Music, by Gerald Abraham:

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.

LLPB offers this mp3 for Veni, Redemptor Gentium, which it calls "The first hymn for the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord." The translation from Oremus is by J.M. Neale:

Come, thou Redeemer of the earth,
and manifest thy virgin birth:
let every age adoring fall;
such birth befits the God of all.

Begotten of no human will,
but of the Spirit, thou art still
the Word of God in flesh arrayed,
the promised fruit to man displayed.

The virgin womb that burden gained
with virgin honor all unstained;
the banners there of virtue glow;
God in his temple dwells below.

Forth from his chamber goeth he,
that royal home of purity,
a giant in twofold substance one,
rejoicing now his course to run.

From God the Father he proceeds,
to God the Father back he speeds;
his course he runs to death and hell,
returning on God's throne to dwell.

O equal to thy Father, thou!
Gird on thy fleshly mantle now;
the weakness of our mortal state
with deathless might invigorate.

Thy cradle here shall glitter bright,
and darkness breathe a newer light,
where endless faith shall shine serene,
and twilight never intervene.

All laud to God the Father be,
all praise, eternal Son, to thee;
all glory, as is ever meet,
to God the Holy Paraclete.

"A Short Responsory" for Lent: Illumina oculos ("Lighten my eyes")

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:

Siglum	Folio	Incipit				Feast	Mode	Image	DB
A-Gu 29	128r	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 4 Quadragesimae	6	Image	CD
A-Gu Ms. 211	064v	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 3 Quadragesimae			CD
A-VOR 287	066v	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 3 Quadragesimae	5		CD
A-Wda D-4	001v	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 3 Quadragesimae	5		CD
A-Wda D-4	039v	Illumina oculos meos*	C	R		Dom. 3 Quadragesimae	*		CD
CH-SGs 388	476	Illumina oculos meos ne	X	R	2	De BMV	?	Image	CD
CZ-Pst DE I 7	107v	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 1 Quadragesimae	5		CD
PL-KIk 1	059r	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 3 Quadragesimae	5		CD
PL-WRu R 503	056r	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 3 Quadragesimae	5		CD
SI-Lna 18 (olim 17)	083r	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 2 Quadragesimae	5		CD
TR-Itks 42	059r	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 1 Quadragesimae	5		CD
SK-BRsa SNA 2	089r	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 1 Quadragesimae		Image	CSK
SK-BRsa SNA 4	095r	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 1 Quadragesimae		Image	CSK
SK-BRsa SNA 17	018v	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 3 Quadragesimae		Image	CSK
SK-Bra EC Lad. 6	054v	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 1 Quadragesimae		Image	CSK
PL-KIk PL-KiK 1	059r	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 3 Quadragesimae	5		CPL
PL-PłS PL-PłS 35	047v	Illumina oculos meos ne	C	R		Dom. 1 Quadragesimae	5	Image	CPL
PL-PłS PL-PłS 35	053v	Illumina*	C	R		Dom. 2 Quadragesimae	*	Image	CPL

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 an image of the chant from the Antiphonary of Bratislava (15th C. ); here is one from the Antiphonarium from Płock Cathedral, a 15th C. Polish source.  (I cannot post these images on this page because of copyright restrictions.)   They differ slightly, in places, from what's on the video above - but they are clearly the same tune.  The pretty rise and fall of the melody on "oculos" is the same in every case.

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

There is another "Illumina oculos" in the repertoire, though; a different text that begins the same way is the Offertory at Lent IV in Year C.   (This chant was formerly the Offertory on the Fourth Sunday of Pentecost.)