Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

164 Maundy Thursday
for the feast of St. Sylvester, Ecce sacerdos magnus, are likewise indicated
only by their first notes. The fact, however, must not be overlooked
that the melody over nobis works like a cadence, hence that it demands,
or at least will bear, a greater pause. This is not the case in the present
Gradual. Taken by themselves, the first five words do not express an
independent thought. It is different with the Gradual Ecce sacerdos
magnus, which, with the exception of a single passage in the verse, has
exactly the same melody as today's Gradual. The same holds true of
the Gradual Exiit sermo sung on the feast of St. John the Evangelist
(q.v.). Hence, it seems more likely that one of these two Graduals is the
original. Et dedit Mi nomen is also heard in the Gradual for the second
Sunday in Lent and for the Assumption. The close of the verse occurs
in no fewer than thirty Graduals. 1
In spite of all this, however, we shall consider today's text and
melody as one whole and render them thus. The corpus expresses grateful
love for all that Christ in His abasement did for us. Nobis helps to
produce this effect. The annotated manuscripts give practically every
note here the broad form. The interpretation of Caecilia (29, 49 ff.)
seems somewhat forced when it regards obediens as an agitated melodic
movement and sees in it the natural repugnance which the youthful
heart of Christ felt in the face of death and of the terrible death struggle
He was to undergo. This interpretation would furthermore intimate
that the resolved major chord over usque is restful, insofar as it reconciles
Christ to the terrible duty imposed upon Him by obedience. The descending
fourth of crucis may serve to visualize for us how the Saviour
with the cry: "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit," bowed
His head and died.
If the corpus narrated the things Christ did for us, then the verse
narrates what the Father did for Christ: exaltdvit ilium—He hath exalted
Him. The melody here sounds like the ringing of Easter bells,
vieing with the joys of heaven. The recitation on c over exaltdvit and afterwards
on d over dedit Mi gives a more plastic form to the subsequent
neums. As if in holy protest, we anticipate the glorification of the Saviour's
name which will be blasphemed so terribly in the succeeding days, the
nscription of which we shall find on the cross over the head of the Victim.
Here the melody modulates to c like the middle cadence in psalmody.
The psalmodic structure, moreover, betrays itself by the intonation
at the beginning of the verse and by a sort of ftexa on a, the last
note of Mum. At the low inception with quod est we reverently bow before
the holy name of Jesus.
Wagner, III, 384.