Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary 409
pudoris, inventa es Mater Salva- any violation of purity, wert found
toris. %. 1. Virgo Dei Genitrix, the mother of our Saviour. Hi. 1.0
quern totus non capit orbis, 2. in Virgin Mother of God, he whom the
tua se clausit viscera factus homo. whole world is unable to contain >
2. being made man, enclosed himself
in thy womb.
The melody (cf. March 19) is very expressive and well adapted to
this text. The corpus is dominated by the stirring melody over Maria,
while the verse has its fervent Virgo—a wondrous hymn of praise to the
Virgin Mother of God. We begin the first phrase in a suppressed tone
but lively tempo, and then continue Virgo Maria with bright and sunny
warmth. If possible, sine tactu pudoris should be sung without pause for
breath; the delicacy of its text calls for fine tonal shading. The same
melody—more rounded out, however—recurs over Mater Salvatoris.
After the tender and extended melody over virgo, care must be taken
that the important words Dei Genitrix be not stunted. The development
of the melody over quern totus non capit orbis differs somewhat from the
original. Keeping the above remarks in mind, we might now compare
-rdbilis es and Salvato-, sine tactu and -venta es, pudoris and mater, Genitrix,
quern totus and tua se clausit viscera. The melody over orbis suggests
word-painting; that over homo, the abasement of the Son of God in
His Incarnation.
The melody is not influenced by the fact that the verse is a distich.
ALLELUIA VERSE
1. Felix es, sacra Virgo Maria, 1. Thou art happy, O holy Virgin
2. et omni laude dignissima; 3. quia Mary, 2. and most worthy of all
ex te ortus est sol justitiae, Christus praise: 3. because from thee arose
Deus noster. the sun of justice, Christ our God.
"And blessed art thou that has believed." These are the words
with which Elizabeth addresses the Mother of God. Alleluia preludes
this thought with melodies of holy jubilation and triumph in God the
Saviour, who has poured out streams of light and grace upon the soul
of Mary. From her arose "the Sun of justice." The celebration and
import of today's feast conjures up in our minds a picture of the glorious
morning sun rising to the accompaniment of myriad choirs of birds
and transmuting by the touch of its magic ray the prosaic, ragged mountaintops
into peaks of gold.
When Elizabeth had heard the salutation of Mary, the infant rejoiced
in her womb, and, filled with the Holy Ghost, she extolled the