Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost 30$
The second thought is: This Bread is full of sweetness. The text
alone rings with the joy of it, but the melody strives to make it still
more prominent. Omne in the second half of the first phrase is sung on
the dominant. (According to a stylistic requirement which is generally
observed in florid songs such as Graduals, a new melodic phrase is here
formed for the same thought.) Its first half is characterized by the predominating
d; the second is introduced by a surprising fifth and closes,
with the cadence customary with the fifth and sixth modes.
We have again been made partakers of this precious food from
heaven. That is the Lord's answer to our supplication and lamentation
in the Introit. He does not forget or forsake us. He comes into our
hearts, bringing His peace, which contains all sweetness in itself. Would
that we might thank Him as we ought! This heavenly food is to prepare
us for heaven, for a heavenly life even on this earth. Its sweetness will
detach us from all earthly joy.
FOURTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
INTROIT (Ps. 83: 10, 11)
1. Protector noster aspice, Deus, 1. Behold, O God, our protector,
et respice in faciem Christi tui: 2. and look on the face of thy Christ: 2.
quia melior est dies una in atriis for better is one day in thy courts
tuis super millia. Ps. Quam di- above thousands. Ps. How lovely are
lecta tabernacula tua, Domine vir- thy tabernacles, O Lord of hostsl *
tutuml * concupiscit, et deficit ani- my soul longeth and fainteth for
ma mea in atria Domini. the courts of the Lord.
The first phrase has a middle cadence on the finale and a final
cadence on the dominant after an emphatic b. It is dominated by the
petitions aspice and respice. Aspice is not an outcry, as it is in the Introit
for Palm Sunday; nevertheless the fourth and the accented c make
it quite insistent. Without God the weakness of man is indeed wont to
fall, as today's Collect tells us. It is extremely difficult constantly to
comply with the admonitions of today's Epistle and to crucify our
flesh with its vices and concupiscences. Assistance from above is absolutely
necessary if we would folllow the dictates of the spirit always
and in all things. Hence this aspice and respice. But Christi tui receives
still greater stress. When we have congregated in the house of God
(atriis tuis), we may pray to Him: We are Thy anointed, Thy Christ;,
we belong to the mystic body of Christ, having become conformable