Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

474 All Souls Day
the Lord, that, as in bygone days, we should like to hear more: 'The
words of the wicked have prevailed over us: and Thou wilt pardon our
transgressions. Blessed is he whom Thou hast chosen and taken to Thee:
he shall dwell in Thy courts. We shall be filled with the good things of
Thy house; holy is Thy temple, wonderful Thy justice' " (Betende
Kirche, p. 572 f.).
The melody of the antiphon is especially warm and pleasant. Something
of the quiet of death, or better, of the peace of eternal life, or again
of heartfelt sympathy with those who have been bereft of a loved one
seems to hover about it. As soothing balsam it penetrates the afflicted
heart. The parallelism of the text is reflected in the melody.
Each of the four half-phrases closes with a quiet clivis: g f and
g f f, and each phrase with the same rhythm. In the second phrase the
5 4 3 21
cadence sets in on the fifth last syllable: luceat eis. The first phrase
closes with a dactylic word (Domine), over the first syllable of which,
5 4 3 2 1
as is often done, a single note is set: (do)-na eis (Do)-mine. In the first
phrase the melody grows gradually: / g, f ga, f g a c, and then, as in the
second phrase, come those serene closing notes: g f and g f f. Aeternam
—only eternal rest can satisfy the human heart—receives prominence
through its pressus. With (e)-is care must be taken that the high point
of the melody be not neglected; nevertheless c must not be accented.
In the first phrase each member began on the tonic /; in the second
phrase they all set in on the dominant a. Perpetua has not the heavy
pressus of aeternam; here everything is lighter, one might almost say
more spiritual, reminding us of a descending light. In the closing rhythm,
the top notes of the melody give the following descending line: cb a g f.
This Introit has two psalm-verses. The first has a solemn intonation
but is wanting in the solemn Introit-psalmody as noted in the most
ancient manuscript. We have here the simple form, which Dom Pothier
tries to justify in Revue (15, 153). We also note the mournful mediatio
correpta over the Hebrew words Sion and Jerusalem.
The text of the antiphon is closely related to a verse of the apocryphal
fourth Book of Esdras (20: 34). Psalm 64, of which our verse in an
excerpt, bears the inscription: "To the people of the captivity, when
they began to go out." Even more than the captive Jews, the souls in
Purgatory yearn for their fatherland, the heavenly Sion, where they
shall glorify God for all eternity.
Revue, 21, 74 ff.; Analyses, 3, 23 ff.; Gregoriusbote, 42, 117 ff.; Rottenburger
Monatsschrift, 6, 101 ff.; Merk, Die Totenmesse mit demLibera
{Stuttgart, Schloz, 1924).