Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

318 Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
justice? If we consider this, then we shall think it a kindness on God's
part that we are now allowed to appeal to His mercy: now we understand
why the melody of the second phrase is so stirring, almost turbulent:
we seem to stretch out to grasp the merciful hand of God. His
justice alone can return to us the purity which we perhaps lost on the
difficult and dangerous journey through life. It is His merciful love alone
that can give us the requisite strength henceforth to remain true to His
commandments, especially to that principal one mentioned in today's
Gospel—love of God and of neighbor.
The rapid ascent of the melody to high e is quite common in Introits
of the first mode; for example, Salus autem andSapientiam from
the Mass for several Martyrs, and especially the Introit Suscepimus
Deus, which is sung on the eighth Sunday after Pentecost and on February
2. There we find a similar beginning with a fifth and the same
melody over the words (mij-sericordiam tuam as we have here over
judicium tuum. In the former piece, however, the development is drawn
on larger lines and is easier of comprehension, while in today's Introit
tuo leads over to the conclusion somewhat too suddenly. The pause after
tuo is justified only by the necessity for taking breath. The melodic continuity—compare
ecac with the subsequent cafg f—is thereby broken.
Far better would be the effect if the whole could be sung without any
interruption. In a large choir, the individuals might breathe at different
places. Tuo is also the only word with melodic shifting, since the accented
syllable is lower than the following syllable. The ending of the second
phrase expands the closing motive of the first phrase a fifth lower.
Revue gr., 11, 123 ff.
GRADUAL (Ps. 32: 12, 6)
1. Beata gens, cujus est Dominus 1. Blessed is the nation whose
Deus eorum: 2. populus, quern God is the Lord: 2. the people whom
elegit Dominus 3. in hereditatem he hath chosen for his inheritance,
sibi. f. 1. Verbo Domini caeli f. 1. By the word of the Lord the
firmati sunt: 2. et spiritu oris ejus heavens were established, 2. and by
3. omnis virtus eorum. the spirit of his mouth 3. all their
power.
If the sevenfold unity of which the Epistle has just spoken binds us
all together; if we walk worthy of the vocation to which we are called;
if we support one another with all meekness, humility, patience, and
charity; if we are careful to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of
peace, then are we a blessed nation, then God is our God—we are His
inheritance and He, the Eternal, will one day be our inheritance and
reward exceeding great.