Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary 443
unspeakable sorrows her motherly heart had to bear. She bears us no
ill will, but with the solicitous heart of a mother she implores God to
avert His just anger from us.
As once she prayed beneath the cross, so now she prays in heaven
for us, in conspectu Dei, before the face of Him who suffers no more, but
has entered into His glory. Even today during the sacred Mysteries she
will intercede for us, and when the bell at the consecration announces
that He has once more become present among us, then Mary implores
abundant graces on our behalf. So long as there is a human heart that is
sighing and struggling and suffering, Mary does not weary of interceding
for it, until the time when she will bring us all into the blissful presence
of her divine Son.
In a few of the ancient manuscripts the present text and melody are
found as the second verse of the Offertory for the twenty-second Sunday
after Pentecost. In Codex H. 159 of Montpellier this composition was
inserted later. This melody exhibits the technique of thematic execution
as few others do. Over the word Recorddre the small note e forms
the connecting link between two motives, the first of which we shall
call a, the second b. Over bistropha and pressus, which should be kept
well separated in the rendition, motive a has an upward movement to
the dominant, after which the melody descends a third. Motive b exhibits
a downward movement and then ascends. Over Virgo Mater the
same two motives are repeated. Bona follows motive b; the three preceding
notes re-echo a part of motive a, as do also the notes over et ut
aver-(tat). Indignationem suam with the descending minor third c-a repeats
motive a in an amplified manner. If we include the preceding
third we have in that which follows a middle cadence of the fifth mode.
Of the greatest artistic value is the employment of the two motives in
the florid vocalization over a. Before / is attained, the melody descends
in a fifth to the tonic d. Motive b sets in on high c and ends with an ascent
of a third. In a brilliant rise, motive a is now attached a fifth higher
and then leads over to motive b, which sets in on c. This trope realizes
to the full the beauty inherent in the melody. 1
The melody is characteristic of fervent petition. With ut loqudris
it becomes still more appealing. Indignationem suam sounds the outcry
of a heart tortured by the weight of divine wrath. But the confident
melody of Recorddre returns, swells to victorious height and power, and
dies away with the expression of quiet resignation.
Musica sacra, 48, 36 ff.
1 Cf. Revue, 4, 161 ff., and Wagner, III, 507 f.