Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost 263
they went forth into the wide world to become fishers of men. At the
behest of God they cast out their nets, and never was their work done
in vain. Their trust in God was without any if or but; it was solid as
granite and bright as the rays of the sun (Oberhammer, III, 106).
FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
INTROIT (Ps. 26:7, 9)
1. Exaudi, Domine, vocem meam, 1. Hear, O Lord, my voice with
qua clamavi ad te: 2. adjutor meus which I have cried to thee: 2. be
esto, ne derelinquas me, neque de- thou my helper, forsake me not, nor
spicias me, Deus salutaris meus. do thou despise me, 0 God, my
f. Dominus illuminatio mea et Saviour, f. The Lord is my light,
salus mea: * quern timebol and my salvation, * whom shall I
feari
The first half of the first phrase moves in the lower range in simple
seconds. Are they the expression of reverence before the majesty of God?
Or of that quiet confidence which places all things in the hands of God?
Has the singer, perhaps, quieted down only after much difficulty, so
that now, during his singing of the Introit, the consciousness of his burden
breaks upon him afresh? In the second half of the first phrase a
certain agitation makes itself felt, not so much in the descending as in
the ascending thirds. The annotated manuscripts, moreover, indicate a
broad rendition of all the neums over qua clamavi, as an expression of
grievous affliction. Still the singer rouses himself to confidence in the
almost brilliant adjutor meus esto with its swelling melody. No such
marked pause, however, may be made after derelinquas me as after esto.
Both petitions—"forsake me not, do not despise me"—must follow
rapidly one upon another. The similar passages qua clamavi: ga fd dc e,
despicias: ga fd eg e and salutaris meus: ga fg eg f, however simple they
may be, still contribute their share toward making the whole more
unified. Deus is the direct antithesis to esto. The closing formtion ad te
bends the otherwise expected clivis (compare the close of the antiphon
with meus) to a podatus, an almost universal rule in chants of the fourth
mode when the following phrase begins with low d, or still lower. P.
Wagner (III, 338) thinks indeed that in the treatment of the responsories
of the Office, the ascending fourth (or fifth) after d is the determining
factor. The present case, as well as the passages non credis, quia,
and est, alleluia, in the Communion Tanto tempore (May 1), perhaps