Advent Ember Wednesday responsory: Cry out with strength

Today is the first of the Advent Ember Days, long designated as fast days, an ancient practice indeed in the Roman liturgy.

As a result, today's responsory, the first for Ember Wednesday, Clama in fortitudine, is one of the lucky few to have made into the 1895 Liber Responsorialis, and so is actually (occasionally at least) still sung in Benedictine monasteries.

O thou that tellest good tidings to Sion

Here is the text of the responsory, and a translation of it:

R. Clama / in fortitúdine, qui annúntias pacem in Ierúsalem: * Dic civitátibus Iudæ, et habitatóribus Sion: † Ecce Deus noster, quem exspectábimus, advéniet. V. Supra montem excélsum ascénde tu, qui evangelízas Sion, † exálta in fortitúdine vocem tuam. R. Dic civitátibus Iudæ, et habitatóribus Sion: Ecce Deus noster, quem exspectábimus, advéniet.

R. Cry out with strength, you who announce peace to Jerusalem:* Say to the cities of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Behold, our God will come, for whom we waited. V. Get thee up upon a high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Sion: lift up thy voice with strength. R. Say unto the cities of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Behold, our God will come, for whom we waited.

The text is based on Isaiah, which has been the book of the Bible read in Advent as far back as the evidence for Matins in Rome.  The particular text for today's responsory comes from chapter 40 and was also used by Handel in the Messiah for several arias and recitatives, including one based on the this text, O though that tellest good tidings to Sion.  Here are the relevant verses from Isaiah in their broader context:

Isaiah 40: 5-10 -  The voice of one, saying: Cry. And I said: What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of the field.  The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen, because the spirit of the Lord hath blown upon it. Indeed the people is grass:  The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen: but the word of our Lord endureth for ever.  thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem: lift it up, fear not. Say to the cities of Juda: Behold your God:  Behold the Lord God shall come with strength, and his arm shall rule: Behold his reward is with him and his work is before him.

Vox dicentis : Clama. Et dixi : Quid clamabo? Omnis caro foenum, et omnis gloria ejus quasi flos agri.  Exsiccatum est foenum, et cecidit flos, quia spiritus Domini sufflavit in eo. Vere foenum est populus;  exsiccatum est foenum, et cecidit flos; verbum autem Domini nostri manet in aeternum.  Super montem excelsum ascende, tu qui evangelizas Sion; exalta in fortitudine vocem tuam, qui evangelizas Jerusalem; exalta, noli timere. Dic civitatibus Juda : Ecce Deus vester: ecce Dominus Deus in fortitudine veniet, et brachium ejus dominabitur, ecce merces ejus cum eo, et opus illius coram illo.

Singing of the psalms in the Office and the responsories

Continuing on, now on the history and context of the responsories, in my last post on the history of the responsories, I pointed to some evidence for mid-fifth century Gallican responsory production, which arguably involved both the Mass and the Office.  I want to say a little more on that today.

As I noted earlier in the series, one of the theories for the origins of responsories relates to the move from responsorial singing to antiphonal.

The claim is that when psalm refrains were no longer needed due to the shift to antiphonal performance of the psalms, they were repurposed as mass propers, and Office responsories.  

Leaving aside the issue of how well fits (or rather does not fit) with our understanding of the evolution of the Mass propers, I want to suggest that there is no evidence at all for the proposition that there was some huge repertoire of refrains that were suddenly made redundant and looking for a home in the fifth century.

Antiphons

 First, if there had been a switch from congregational singing to antiphonal, the most obvious 'repurposing' would surely have been to use the refrains as antiphons in the modern sense of a short musical composition used at the beginning and/or end of a psalms.

The early history of antiphons (including whether they existed at all) is (naturally) highly contested, but the Rule of St Benedict makes pretty clear references to them in way that is entirely consistent with their use in the way we know them.

Moreover some have, for example proposed (albeit without much evidence to support the idea) that antiphons were originally repeated at regular intervals throughout a psalm, much in the way that the refrain was used in responsorial psalmody.

Solo psalm performance in the early Office

More fundamentally though, most responsorial singing of the psalms almost certainly originally happened in the context of the Mass, not the Office - or at least not in the monastic Office.

The earliest evidence we have on how the psalms were performed in the monastic Office comes from Cassian and Rufinus for Egypt, both of whom suggest that the psalms were generally sung by one person, with the rest listening in silence except to join in a doxology or other form of response at the end of the psalm (such as a prayer).

That approach (or variants on it) continued to be used in many places including Gaul and Celtic influenced monasteries well into the eighth century.  

The Benedictine Office

In Rome though, or at least in the Rule of St Benedict, it is pretty clear that the use of two alternating choirs was the norm.  While the Rule itself is arguably ambiguous on this subject, the slightly later Italian Rule of Stephen and Paul (which was clearly influenced by the Rule of St Benedict) makes it quite clear that one singer intones the psalms, then  others join in.  

The two verse doxology we still use for the psalms was almost certainly introduced in Rome by at least the early sixth century precisely to reflect this style of singing (the older version had only one verse).

And one of the distinctive features of Roman psalmody following its introduction to Anglo-Saxon England was seen as precisely this choral style of performance.

The shift to antiphony

Moreover, in the context of the Mass, the Liber Pontificalis attributes the shift to antiphonal psalmody to Pope Celestine (422- 432).  But it also states that he decreed that the psalms should be performed antiphonally by everyone, in explicit contrast to the Epistle and Gospel.  

The shift to a more elaborate style of melody suitable for performance by a specialist singer then, was a later development, likely not a direct consequence of the shift away from responsorial psalmody.

Where then, did the responsories come from?  I will come back to this question in due course!

Advent responsory: Rain on a fleece as a symbol of the Incarnation

Today's responsory is the third for Tuesday in week three of Advent (also the seventh of Sunday), and contains some rich imagery of the Incarnation.  The text is largely taken from Psalm 71:

R. Descéndet / Dóminus sicut plúvia in vellus: * Oriétur in diébus eius iustítia, et abundántia pacis. V. Et adorábunt eum omnes reges, omnes gentes sérvient ei. R. Oriétur in diébus eius iustítia, et abundántia pacis. V. Glória Patri, et Fílio, et Spirítui Sancto. R. Oriétur in diébus eius iustítia, et abundántia pacis.

R. The Lord shall come down like rain upon a fleece. * In His days shall righteousness flourish, and abundance of peace. V. All the kings of the earth shall fall down before Him, all nations shall serve Him. R. In His days shall righteousness flourish, and abundance of peace. V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. R. In His days shall righteousness flourish, and abundance of peace.

St Augustine's commentary on this psalm links it to the story of Gideon and the fleece in Judges 6:

He has called to our minds and admonished us, that what was done by Gedeon the Judge, in Christ has its end. For he asked a sign of the Lord, that a fleece laid on the floor should alone be rained upon, and the floor should be dry; and again, the fleece alone should be dry, and the floor should be rained upon; and so it came to pass.  

Which thing signified, that, being as it were on a floor in the midst of the whole round world, the dry fleece was the former people Israel. 

The same Christ therefore Himself came down like rain upon a fleece, when yet the floor was dry: whence also He said, I am not sent but to the sheep which were lost of the house of Israel.  There He chose out a Mother by whom to receive the form of a servant, wherein He was to appear to men...

The earliest responsories?

Most of the responsories we've looked at so far this Advent have been either non-psalm based, so this is an interesting example of a distinct set of psalm responsories clearly chosen for their appropriateness to the season or feast.

And indeed, one of the oldest possible references to the responsory repertoire relates to exactly this type of responsory.  Gennadius of Marseilles wrote about some work commissioned by his predecessor Venerius (428-52), saying:

Musaeus, presbyter of the church at Marseilles, a man learned in Divine Scriptures and most accurate in their interpretation, as well as master of an excellent scholastic style, on the request of Saint Venerius the bishop, selected from Holy Scriptures passages suited to the various feast days of the year, also passages from the Psalms for responses suited to the season, and the passages for reading. 

The readers in the church found this work of the greatest value, in that it saved them trouble and anxiety in the selection of passages, and was useful for the instruction of the people as well as for the dignity of the service.

He also addressed to Saint Eustathius the bishop, successor to the above mentioned man of God, an excellent and sizable volume, a Sacramentary, divided into various sections, according to the various offices and seasons, readings and psalms, both for reading and chanting, but also filled throughout with petitions to the Lord, and thanksgiving for his benefits.

By this work we know him to have been a man of strong intelligence and chaste eloquence. He is said to have also delivered homilies, which are, as I know, valued by pious men, but which I have not read. He died in the reign of Leo and Majorianus.

It is unclear in this, of course, whether he is talking about the Office was well as the Mass, particularly as the Gallic equivalent of the Roman Gradual was called a responsory.  Still, the comment seems broad enough to encompass both uses of psalms.

Advent responsory: Bethlehem, the city of the most high God

Today's O antiphon is O Adonai.

And for a responsory, I want to take a brief look at Bethlehem civitas Dei, the second responsory for the Third Sunday of Advent as well as Monday in week three of Advent, brings us back firmly to the events of Christmas itself, but also on the implications of the Incarnation: 

R. Bethléhem, / cívitas Dei summi, ex te éxiet Dominátor Israël, † et egréssus eius sicut a princípio diérum æternitátis, † et magnificábitur in médio univérsæ terræ: * Et pax erit in terra nostra, dum vénerit. V. Loquétur pacem in géntibus, † et potéstas eius a mari usque ad mare. R. Et pax erit in terra nostra, dum vénerit.

R. From you, Bethlehem, city of the Most High God, shall come forth he that is to be ruler of Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting, and now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth. * And there will be the peace in our land when he comes. V. He shall speak peace unto the gentiles, and shall have dominion from sea to sea. R. And there will be the peace in our land when he comes.

The text of the respond is based on Micah 5:2:

Et tu, Bethlehem Ephrata, parvulus es in millibus Juda; ex te mihi egredietur qui sit dominator in Israël, et egressus ejus ab initio, a diebus æternitatis.

Bethlehem-Ephrata! Least do they reckon thee among all the clans of Juda? Nay, it is from thee I look to find a prince that shall rule over Israel. Whence comes he? From the first beginning, from ages untold. (Knox translation).

The verse is from Zachariah 9:10.

This is another responsory that may have come into the Roman repertoire from Gaul or Spain.

It is worth noting though, that many of the Advent seasonal responsories we have been looking at were almost certainly not those used in the Benedictine Office in St Benedict's time due to the strongly ferial character of the Office at that time, but also because Advent (the Ember days aside) was mostly a rather late arrival to Rome.  Although Christmas was introduced into the calendar early on, and the lead up to the feast quickly spread in the West, in Rome the pre-season itself seems to have developed only over the later part of the sixth century.

Advent responsory: Make haste O Lord and do not tarry - and preparing for the last week of Advent in the Office (Responsories Pt 8)

 

First, a reminder that we are coming into the last week of Advent, when things become particularly complicated in the Office, so make sure you set up your ribbons and prayer cards in advance!

Advent between December 17 and 23

In particular, keep in mind that the days between December 17 and 23 are Class II days, and at Lauds to Vespers a set of antiphons for the psalms for each day of the week in the period December 17-23 are used, set out at MD 37*/AM 212 ff.

At Lauds the Benedictus antiphons are normally of the day of the week in the third week of Advent, but there are specific antiphons said on December 21 and 23.

At Vespers, the 'O Antiphons' for the Magnificat are of the date (MD 35-6*/AM 208 ff), displacing the Magnificat antiphon of the Advent day.  you can listen to ta recording of the first of the set above.

At Matins there is a proper Invitatory antiphon for the season (Prope est, NM 14).

Advent responsory: Festina ne tardaveris

Today's Advent responsory is the second responsory for Saturday in the second week of Advent, also said as the tenth of the Second Sunday.  

R. Festína, / ne tardáveris, Dómine: * Et líbera pópulum tuum. V. Veni, Dómine, et noli tardáre: † reláxa facinóra plebi tuæ. R. Et líbera pópulum tuum.

R. Make haste, O Lord, make no tarrying. * And deliver thy people. V. O Lord, come and make no tarrying loose the bonds of thy people. R. And deliver thy people.

The text

The text is non-Scriptural,  but perhaps loosely based on Habakukk 2 which says:

Write down thy vision, the Lord said, on a tablet, so plain that it may be read with a glance a vision of things far distant, yet one day befall they must, no room for doubting it. Wait thou long, yet wait patiently; what must be must, and at the time appointed for it. 

[Quia adhuc visus procul; et apparebit in finem, et non mentietur: si moram fecerit, exspecta illum, quia veniens veniet, et non tardabit]

The wording also, though, has echoes of  the final verse of  Psalm 39, a psalm which prophesizes the Incarnation, as these couple of extracts illustrate:

2 Patiently I waited for the Lord’s help, and at last he turned his look towards me... 8 See then, I said, I am coming to fulfil what is written of me, where the book lies unrolled; 9 to do thy will, O my God, is all my desire, to carry out that law of thine which is written in my heart... 17 Rejoicing and triumph for all the souls that look to thee; Praise to the Lord, will ever be their song, who now long for thy aid. 18 I, so helpless, so destitute, and the Lord is concerned for me! Thou art my champion and my refuge; do not linger, my God, do not linger on the way. [Adjutor meus et protector meus tu es; Deus meus, ne tardaveris.]

Which are the oldest responsories?

I have included it in part firstly because although the liturgists would argue that its non-Scriptural text makes it more likely a later composition, it seems on the face of it to be very old indeed.  

It appears, for example, in the surviving Old Roman manuscripts (possibly capturing at least part of the seventh century repertoire of responsories in Rome), as well as multiple other sources.  

But the other key point of note is that it has a very short respond, and is musically very straightforward indeed - at least as short and straightforward to sing, if not more so, as many of the psalm based responsories that the liturgists argue represent the oldest layer of responsories.

But more on this anon!

Advent responsory: Jerusalem plantabis vineam (Responsories Pt 7)

Source: Gregobase (Gregofacsimil)

Today's Advent responsory is used on Sunday and Friday in the second week of Advent.   

You can listen to it in a setting by Lassus below, but it focuses on the imagery of Jerusalem, and above all the vineyard which the Lord plants and calls his labourers to tend.  The text is actually from Jeremiah 31: 5-7:

R. Ierúsalem, / plantábis víneam in móntibus tuis: † exsultábis, quóniam dies Dómini véniet: † surge, Sion, convértere ad Dóminum Deum tuum: gaude et lætáre, Iacob: * Quia de médio géntium Salvátor tuus véniet. V. Exsúlta satis, fília Sion: iúbila, fília Ierúsalem. R. Quia de médio géntium Salvátor tuus véniet. V. Glória Patri, et Fílio, * et Spirítui Sancto. R. Quia de médio géntium Salvátor tuus véniet.

R. Thou shalt yet plant vines upon thy mountains, O Jerusalem thou shalt sing for joy, for the day of the Lord cometh; arise, O Zion, and turn unto the Lord thy God; rejoice and be glad, O Jacob. * For thy Saviour cometh from the midst of the nations. V. Sing aloud for joy, O daughter of Zion; shout with gladness, O daughter of Jerusalem. R. For thy Saviour cometh from the midst of the nations. V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. R. For thy Saviour cometh from the midst of the nations.

The original text of the respond though reads as follows:

5 Once more thou shalt plant vineyards over the hill-country of Samaria; planted they shall be, and the men who planted them await the appointed time before they gather the vintage. Watchmen there shall be, when that day comes, in the hill-country of Ephraim that will cry aloud, Up, to Sion go we, and there worship the Lord our God!  Rejoice, the Lord says, at Jacob’s triumph, the proudest of nations greet with a glad cry; loud echo your songs of praise, Deliverance, Lord, for thy people, for the remnant of Israel! (Knox translation)

The verse is from Zachariah 9:9, which then continues 'See where thy king comes to greet thee, a trusty deliverer; see how lowly he rides, mounted on an ass, patient colt of patient dam'.

Advent responsory Ecce Dominus veniet and the diverse chant traditions of late antiquity (Responsories Pt 6)

Source: Gregobase (Sandhofe)

For today's Advent responsory I have selected Ecce Dominus veniet, which is used both on Thursday in the second week of Advent, and on the Second Sunday of Advent.

It's a nice example of Advent texts with something of an eschatological dimension to them.  Here is the text, which is based on Zachariah 14, and Isaiah 40:

R. Ecce / Dóminus véniet, et omnes Sancti eius cum eo, † et erit in die illa lux magna: † et exíbunt de Ierúsalem sicut aqua munda: et regnábit Dóminus in ætérnum * Super omnes gentes. V. Ecce Dóminus cum virtúte véniet: † et regnum in manu eius, et potéstas, et impérium. R. Super omnes gentes.

R. Behold, the Lord shall come, and all His saints with Him, and it shall come to pass in that day that the light shall be great; and they shall go out from Jerusalem like clean water; and the Lord shall be King for ever, * Over all the earth. V. Behold, the Lord cometh with a host, and in His hand are the kingdom, and power, and dominion. R. Over all the earth.

One of the intriguing aspects of this particular responsory is that a recent study has identified it as one of a group of responsories that may have entered into the Roman repertoire from Gaul and/or Spain, since the adaptations to the text are mirrored in a responsory in the Old Hispanic repertoire, and although the melody is different too the Gregorian chant version, the number of notes allocated to each syllable is essentially the same in the Gregorian and Old Hispanic versions (1).

And that brings us nicely to the topic I want to start exploring today, namely, when and where did responsories originate, and how did the repertoire develop to the form that we know know it in?

Pretty much everything about these questions, it has to be said upfront, is highly contested, with no clear answers on many points.

Different chant traditions for responsories?

The repertoire of responsories used today in the Office (to the very limited extent that they are actually used) are examples of Gregorian chant, or as musicologists prefer to call it, Franco-Roman chant, to reflect the fact that what emerged as Gregorian chant somewhere around the twelfth century probably represents (largely) the interaction of two different styles and repertoires of chant, Old Roman and Gallican.

The best known and arguably earliest unambiguous reference to the great responsories of Matins is in the Rule of St Benedict (circa 510-28).  

Roman origins?

For this reason, most liturgiologists have long assumed that responsories originated in Rome sometime in the fifth century with a set of psalm based responsories derived repertoire of refrains used with psalms displaced by the shift from responsorial (soloist sings the verses, people sing the refrain) to antiphonal (two choirs singing alternating verses) singing of the psalms (2).  

They also argue that a particular set of psalm based responsories, used since the eighth century reform of the Matins reading cycle in the period after Epiphany, represent a set of proto-responsories that attest to a shift to a fixed weekly psalm cursus before St Benedict, some time in the late fifth century (3).

The alternative theory is that responsories  - as for several other elements such as hymns - were introduced into the Roman Office at some point, perhaps through the influence of the Benedictine Office.

I'll go into the arguments for and against these theories in due course, but suffice to note now that many musicologists have long been skeptical of the Roman origin theory, and there is a growing body of evidence to support those doubts.

Non-Roman responsory repertoire

Those doubts have rather been amplified by the discovery, in recent decades, that responsories seem to have been a part of all of the major Western chant traditions that we know about from late antiquity and through the early middle ages.  

In some cases, such as Ambrosian and old Hispanic chant, the distinct responsories of these traditions survived long enough to be recorded in some form, and continued to evolve along side the Gregorian tradition.  

Similarly, although Beneventan and Old Roman chant were eventually suppressed in favour of Gregorian, musicologists have been able to identify a number of manuscripts that preserve at least some of the distinctive repertoire or versions of responsories of these traditions.  

The Gallican repertoire dissapeared rather earlier (from the late eighth century onwards, under Pepin the Short, compared to the tenth century for Beneventan for example) and was more thoroughly suppressed, though some work aimed at identifying the traces it has left on the repertoire has been done.

How far back do these various responsory sets go though, and do they all originate from one common source?

More on that anon.

In the meantime, here is a polyphonic setting of the respond to today's responsory by Praetorius to listen to.

 

Notes

(1) Rebecca Maloy, Mason Brown, Benjamin Pongtep Cefkin, Ruth Opara, Megan Quilliam And Melanie Shaffer, Revisiting ‘Toledo, Rome, and the Legacy of Gaul’: new evidence from the

Divine Office, Plainsong and Medieval Music, 31, 1, 1–35, 2022.

(2) The most developed version of the theory is set out in R. Le Roux: ‘Etude de l’office dominical et férial: les répons “de psalmis” pour les matines de l’Epiphanie à la Septuagésime selon les cursus romain et monastique’, EG, vi (1963), 39–148.

(3) For the most recent articulation and summary of this theory, see Lazlo Dobsay, The Divine Office in History, in Alcuin Reid (ed), T&T Clark Companion to the Liturgy, London, 2016, pp 207-238.

Feast of St Lucy

 Niccolò di Segna c. 1340
Source: Wiki commons

Today is the feast of St Lucy, martyred in 304, after she distributed her dowry to the poor, her betrothed denounced her as a Christian.  Here is the Matins reading on her for the feast:

Lucy a virgin of Syracuse, noble by birth and by her Christian faith, went to the tomb of St. Agatha at Catheria and obtained the cure of her mother, Eutichia who was suffering from a hemorrhage. Soon after, she gained her mother's permission to distribute to the poor all the possessions which were to have served as her dowry. As a result of this charitable action, she was accused of being a Christian and brought before Paschasius the Prefect. When neither promises nor threats could induce her to sacrifice the idols, Paschasius became enraged and commanded Lucy to be taken to a place where her virginity would be violated. But the power of God gave the virgin a strength that matched the firmness of her resolution, so that no force could move her where she stood. And so the prefect commanded a fire to be kindled all around here, but the flames did not harm her. After she had suffered many torments, therefore her throat was pierced through with a sword. So wounded she foretold that the Church would have peace after the deaths of Diocletian and Maximilian, and on December 13 she gave up her spirit to God. Her body was first buried at Syracuse, than taken to Constantinople, and finally transferred to Venice.

You can listen to one of the responsories for the feast here:

The text is as follows:

R. Lúcia virgo, quid a me petis quod ipsa póteris præstare continuo matri tuæ? nam et fides tua illi subvenit, et ecce salváta est: * Quia jucúndum Deo in tua virginitate habitáculum præparásti. V. Sicut per me cívitas Catanensium sublimátur a Christo, ita per te Syracusana cívitas decorábitur. R. Quia jucúndum Deo in tua virginitate habitáculum præparasti.

R. Maiden Lucy, why seekest thou of me that which thou thyself canst presently give thy mother? For thy faith hath helped her, and, behold, she is made whole * Because thou hast made in thy virginity a pleasant dwelling-place for thy God. V. Even as Christ hath by me glorified Catania, so by thee shall He glorify Syracuse. R. Because thou hast made in thy virginity a pleasant dwelling place for thy God.