Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

242 Sunday within the Octave of Corpus Christi
This Gradual continues the thoughts of the Introit and is a joyfully
animated song of thanksgiving for favors granted. A retrospective glance
at the help which the singer has received from God's bounty gives him
courage confidently to present his new petitions in the verse. Wicked
lips afflict him also, speaking what is unjust (Idbiis iniquis), accusing
him without cause, and calumniating him. And even if the Epistle for
the Sunday says: "Wonder not if the world hate you," this hate, nevertheless,
presses heavily upon the soul. Others come with honeyed words,
but they are false (lingua dolosa); they wish to deceive and seduce. Lord,
save me from this peril!
The ordinary construction of Graduals, which assigns a plagal
mode to the corpus and the corresponding authentic mode to the verse,
is followed here in the first words Ad Dominum; but then the melody
immediately changes over to the authentic form and emphasizes it almost
more than the verse. The verse thrice closes on the tonic; the
corpus never. The melody over dum tribuldrer has for its schema the
middle cadence of the simple psalm-tone of the fifth mode f a c-d c;
that over exaudivit, the close of the solemn tone of the lessons, 6 g a f,
which receives still greater amplification in the verse over lingua. In the
verse care must be taken that the bistropha and the two tristrophas be
interwoven into the whole in an elastic yet subdued manner. The seconds
over libera dnimam should have a soothing effect. We hear the same
sequence of tones over meam that appeared in the close of the corpus of
the Gradual. Ldbiis and the central group of notes over dolosa are related.
The melismas over iniquis have been taken over from those over
clamdvi in the first part. In the ancient manuscripts this Gradual is assigned
to the Friday after the second Sunday in Lent.
ALLELUIA VERSE (Ps. 7: 2)
1. Domine Deus meus, in te 1.0 Lord my God, in thee have I
speravi; 2. salvum me fac ex omni- put my trust; 2. save me from all
bus persequentibus me, 3. et libera them that persecute me, 3. and deme.
liver me.
The Alleluia with its jubilus has the form a b b 1 . Alleluia is the arsis;
the jubilus is the thesis. Twice the descent is retarded and held together
by a pressus. In the verse three great curves swing upward as
arses, to which a triple descending thesis corresponds.
Arsis Thesis
1. in te speravi 1. salvum me fac
2. ex omnibus 2. persequentibus me
3. et libera (me) 3. me