Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

All Saints Day 469
placed in this invitation a fullness of consolation and refreshment, of
liberty and bliss. Although we must admit that the melisma over labordtis
is considerably drawn out, yet there is nothing oppressive about
it, nothing that suggests pain or sore distress. It is a thorough Alleluiasong,
giving one the impression that all difficulties have been overcome,
just as the saints in heaven with joy and fervent thanksgiving to God
now cast a glance backward at their earthly existence.
The jubilus has the form a+ a 1 , b, c, c 1 . We find that the melody
of Alleluia likewise begins the verse Venite. The b-member of the jubilus
has exerted an influence on the melody over omnes. "If in the beginning
with Venite ad me the melody was tender and mild, almost ingratiating,
with omnes it rises wide and high, as if Christ were opening
His arms to embrace the many thousands" (C. O., 50, 150).
The melisma over labordtis with its fifty-two notes clearly reveals
the structure: a b b a; a is repeated immediately after the third pause,
contracting the individual notes over qui labordtis into a torculus. Here
the motives ascend forcefully upward. Contrasting with this, we find
between these motives the descending motives c and c 1 of the jubilus.
"Scarcely has the word reficiam been uttered, than the entire choir
joins in. The melody of alleluia rises to the lips. For they have experienced
a hundred and a thousand times the meaning of this reficiam.
They can only thank, praise, and rejoice, and in their hearts and on their
lips the grateful response to the promise of Christ finds expression in
the melody of the jubilus, until it once more brings this gripping, highly
dramatic picture to a close" (C. O., 50, 150).
In the subsequent Gospel we are shown how God comforts His
people. He will console and give them their fill, will show them mercy,
and will lead them to the contemplation of Himself; they will be called
and truly be children of God: He will give them His heaven. Would
that we might think of this oftener in this our earthly exile!
Today the Saviour has again invited to Himself all who have come
to the house of God. In the sacred Mysteries He will be our strength,
and through them He will prepare us for that eternal Alleluia with
which the streets of the heavenly Jerusalem forever resound.
OFFERTORY (Wisd. 3: 1, 2, 3)
1. Justorum animae in manu 1. The souls of the just are in
Dei sunt, 2. et non tanget illos tor- the hand of God, 2. and the torment
mentum malitiae: 3. visi sunt oculis of malice shall not touch them: 3. in
insipientium mori: 4. illi autem the sight of the unwise they seemed
sunt in pace, 5. alleluia. to die, 4. but they are in peace, 5.
alleluia.