Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

290 Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
and to more than five hundred brethren. We may, therefore, place this
song in the mouth of the Risen One. Its first phrase resembles the spirit
of the Easter Introit. "My flesh hath flourished again." How radiant is
Christ in His springtime beauty and splendor, after His body has undergone
the most horrible sufferings! How sweet is this song of thanksgiving
when it comes from the heart of Jesus! In the verse, the risen Christ
seems to look back on His sufferings and His abandonment, when the
Father seemed to turn a deaf ear to His Deus meus and to be immeasurably
distant. But in ancient times the present Gradual did not close with
these petitions. To round out the piece the corpus of the Gradual was
repeated in the spirit of reconciliation, thus making it more like a song
of thanksgiving.
With these same words St. Paul might have given thanks that by
the grace of God he is what he is, and that this grace has not remained
inoperative in him—thoughts which close today's Epistle. We all have
good reason to give thanks from the bottom of our hearts, because we
have been saved by the same good tidings. In like manner does the
deaf-and-dumb man of today's Gospel thank the Lord, for He did not
remain silent, but pronounced His almighty Ephpheta—"Be thou
opened!"
ALLELUIA VERSE (Ps. 80: 2, 3)
1. Exsultate Deo adjutori nostro 1. Rejoice to God our helper, 2.
2. jubilate Deo Jacob: 3. sumite Sing aloud to the God of Jacob: 3.
psalmum jucundum cum cithara. take a joyful psalm with the harp.
Alleluia has the form a b c. Similarly, a begins the first and third
phrases of the verse. In each case, however, the treatment of the wordaccent
is different, with corresponding differences in the dynamics. Exsultate
and sumite are admittedly nothing more than introductions to
the words which follow them. The imperative which begins the second
phrase also rises a fourth above the opening note. Principal and secondary
accents are treated in the same way as in exsultate (=jubildte). In
the b-member, e d e f d and b a b c d c correspond. The passage over
Deo is heard again over nostro and (Ja)-cob, while (adjuto)-ri occurs in
an extended form over psalmum and jucundum. Were it left to us we
should most likely in all three cases have distributed the neums as with
psalmum, instead of placing a single note on the accented syllable and
an ornate melisma over the closing syllable. In the votive Mass of the
Most Pure Heart of Mary during Paschal time, the melody is sung in
the same fashion; the alleluia for the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost
also bears a slight resemblance to it.