Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

346 Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost
We singers of the Church's chants, however, shall cry out: Give me
to sing worthily, 0 Lord! The words which we pronounce are such as
can please Thee, for they are mostly Thy words, words which Thou hast
spoken or inspired. But also our melodies must ring true if they are to
please Thee. And they will have the correct ring if we but conform our
lives to that which we say with our lips.
COMMUNION (Ps. 16:6)
1. Ego clamavi, quoniam exau- 1. / have cried, for thou, O God,
disti me Deus: 2. inclina aurem hast heard me; 2. Oh, incline thine
iuam, et exaudi verba mea. ear, unto me and graciously hear
my words.
In the first phrase the singer gratefully acknowledges that as often
as he called upon God he found relief. The descending melody over
clamdvi sounds like the confession of one's own helplessness and insufficiency.
So much the more surely and convincingly does it soar up
over quoniam, using the motive of ego: f g, g a, g a b, bb c, a d d, with a
slight bending back of the melodic curve. The melody should therefore
be rendered accordingly. Now follows the almost turbulent petition, in
which the melody soars a third above the dominant of the eighth mode:
"Oh, incline also today Thine ear to me and graciously hear my prayer.
Behold, I now bear Thy beloved Son in my heart. I pray in His name,
in union with Him, and He intercedes for me. Do Thou hear Him!"
On exaudisti there is an ascending fourth, a-d, and over exaudi a descending
fourth, d-a.
If a song is supposed to be natural, direct, alive, true, and warm,
then this song meets all the requirements. It is, therefore, hard to understand
why this expressive melody was appropriated for the text used
on the feast of the Holy Shroud (celebrated in some places on the Friday
after the second Sunday of Lent): "Joseph buying fine linen, and
taking him down, wrapped him up in the fine linen."
TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER
PENTECOST
INTROIT (Jer. 29: 11, 12, 14)
1. Dicit Dominus: Ego cogito co- 1. The Lord saith: I think thoughts
gitationes pads, et non afflictionis: of peace, and not of affliction: 2.