Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

Easter Sunday 179
The real dominant of the melody and of the Resurrexi is /, which
pervades the entire piece as a tristropha; it must be sung very lightly;
it is, so to say, a quivering from very joy. Adhuc tecum sum has g for its
dominant. Five notes precede the word tecum and five follow it. The entire
first phrase confines itself to the tetrachord d-g. Its alleluia is also
sung as proceeding from the heart of the risen Christ. But it may serve
in all three phrases as our own cry—a jubilant, expressive Amen to the
words of the Redeemer (Analyses, III, 10).
2. "Thou hast laid thy hand upon me." Even when He was in the
grave the hand of the Father rested protectingly over His Son. Then it
permitted Him to shatter the fetters of death and to arise to a new life.
Perhaps one may also apply these words to the hand of God demanding
justice which weighed so terribly upon the Saviour that it forced from
Him the words: "Only against Me He hath turned, and turned again
His hand all the day" (Lamen. 3: 3). But today Christ substitutes the
glad Alleluia: Alleluia for His sufferings, for His death, and for the
fruits of His redemption.
The calm melody with its strong accent on / may serve as a picture
of the quietly sheltering hand of God. Super and manum remind us of
the first alle-(Mia). Toward the end, the second alleluia must grow in
warmth and thus prepare for the third phrase. The rising melody has
the same end in view. This second phrase has three members, like the
first, but a greater range: d-a.
Now the third phrase may begin with all solemnity. It has four
members, a tone-range of c-a, and a fourth which introduces a sort of
modulation to low c. Amazement seems ever to grow in the heart of the
Risen One. If we abstract from the first note, then the first alleMia is
but a slightly shortened form of et adhuc tecum sum, and the second
alleMia a repetition of the alleluia which follows that phrase.
The gaze of the risen Christ turns back to the days of eternity when
divine mercy conceived the plan (scientia) of redemption. God was to
become man, the Impassible One was to suffer, the Eternal to be destroyed,
but from this death a new and fruitful life was to emerge; mankind,
a nonentity before the majesty of God, was destined to obtain in
the divine person of Jesus eternal reconciliation, unending glorification.
Human power and malice were indeed to triumph for a short time, but
then God's wisdom, omnipotence, and goodness were to assert themselves
so much the more gloriously. All these apparent contradictions
found a wonderful solution (mirdbilis) in the resurrection of Christ. It
is through this that our faith and our hope have received their foundation
and corroboration.