Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

Sexagesima Sunday 103
than a synopsis of the melody over the psalm-verse (Deus auribus),
they are most effective here because of their position in the Introit. The
composer had in his heart a feeling somewhat akin to that which forced
from the Saviour's lips the terrible cry: "My God, why hast Thou forsaken
Me?" The almost monotonous tribulationem nostram reminds us
of our daily work, of that deadly sameness which may either numb the
soul or be its constant torture. At adhaesit the melody tries four times
to surge upward, and four times sinks back as if drawn down by a leaden
weight. The highest notes of the individual groups form a descending
line from dominant to tonic: a g f e d.
Now the singer summons all his strength, storming heaven with
short yet powerful sentences. How telling is the simple syllabic chant
in this instance! The third phrase is melodically like the first; its ddjuva
is a simpler form of the second exsurge. The second half cf the phrase
then closes with the anticipated calmness inspired by the subsequent
psalm-verse and psalm, which tells of the providence of God in the days
of the Egyptian bondage, and of the liberation of Israel's children.
K.K., 24, 13 ff.
GRADUAL (Ps. 82: 10, 14)
1. Sciant gentes quoniam nomen 1. Let the gentiles know that God
tibi Deus: 2. tu solus Altissimus is thy name: 2. thou alone art the
super omnem terram. $. 1. Deus Most High over all the earth, jlf. 1,
meus, pone illos ut rotam, 2. et sicut O my God, make them like a wheel,
stipulam 3. ante fadem venti. 2. and as stubble 3. before the face
of the wind.
Rumors of wars and threatened invasions of heathen enemies seem
to be referred to in this Gradual. The verse with its request, which
strikes us so oddly, begs God to put the enemy to flight with the same
despatch that is shown by the autumn wind in heaping together the
weeds of the fields and whisking them across the prairie.
By God's grace our enemies are to be robbed of their strength, and
we are to be made strong, that we may learn to overcome all things.
That is St. Paul's instruction in today's Epistle. We are to preserve this
strength throughout our life, and thus show the "gentiles" the enemies
of Christ and those who deny Him—that He is truly God. This Easter
Christ is to achieve victory in us.
The corpus of the Gradual is well planned. There is a well-ordered
widening of the range in the phrases c-a and d-b, as well as in the two
following which range from c-c. The nomen tibi is echoed in Deus. Here
we find also the words Deus and Altissimus given a treatment similar