Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

Quinquagesima Sunday 107
by virtue of His strength. When we enter the church today, He becomes
our refuge and our strength, our Leader who will nourish us even now
with the Easter Food, the Food of the strong, in order to bring us through
the desert to the promised land of Eastertide." (W.K.).
INTROIT Ps. 30:3, 4)
1. Esto mihi in Deum protector em, 1. Be thou unto me a God, a proet^in
locum refugii, ut salvum me lector, and a place of refuge, to save
facias: 2. quoniam firmamentum me: 2. for thou art my strength, and
meum, et refugium meum es tu; 3. my refuge; 3. and for thy name's
et proper nomen tuum dux mihi eris, sake thou wilt be my leader and wilt
et enutries me. Ps. In te Domine nourish me. Ps. In thee, O Lord,
speravi, non confundar in aeter- have I hoped, let me never be connum:
* in justitia tua libera me. founded: * deliver me in thy justice.
The melody of this Introit is divided according to content and text
into three parts, thus affording another instance of the influence which
the text has on the chants themselves.
A happy confidence animates the first part of the song. It is not
impetuous joy, not the exultant joy of a victory-crowned hero. It is
deep-seated happiness, the kind which is born of utter confidence. The
endings to the phrases are delicately done. In every case the final note
is prepared for by the preceding note of the same pitch: fgf,f,fec, c,
fdec c. A similar soft effect is produced in most of the accented syllables
by the fact that the note preceding the syllable has the pitch of the
accented one. To this there are but four exceptions—ut salvum, et propter,
tuum, and dux—no doubt because these words are to receive special
prominence. Added to all this we have the warmth of the sixth mode
pervading the whole.
The first phrase is a childlike petition. Beginning with a minor third,
it sinks to c and then rises a fourth. Not until this point is reached does
the melody begin to pulse upward above the dominant. The second half
resembles the first: in Deum is like refugii, and the second member likewise
rises to a. The endings, too, are very similar.
In the second phrase the situation is reversed. The first half with its
recitative on the dominant is firm and definite; the descent occurs only
in the second half. A pleasant contrast is thus afforded to the first and
last phrases. Like the first and second, the third phrase also has an
ascending fourth, followed by a bistropha. Here, after an apparent calm
on g, the melody rises to a bright c. "Thou wilt be my Leader," is the
choir's exultant song. It is the breaking through of joy too long withheld.
Even if I must walk the path of sorrow, I am not alone: Thou art