Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

476 All Souls Day
pictures to us the decisive moment before the awful judgment, which is
emphasized still more in the Offertory.
Except that the first verse has a florid intonation, the first half of
all three verses is alike, having also the same middle cadence. The second
half of the first and second verses shows the same descending formula,
which sets in one syllable before the word-accent: -Hct6rum>
-tionis. The third verse has a florid closing melisma.
Here the chants, so far of a quiet character, take on a gloomier coloring,
yet even now the petition for liberty and light, yes, eternal happiness,,
predominates above all else. The melody is not in the serious second
mode, but in the lighter, brighter eighth mode.
SEQUENCE
The Franciscan Thomas of Celano (1200-1255?) is considered the
composer of this Sequence, although we find his name attached to it
only a century later. Not before the second half of the fourteenth century
was this song included in the Requiem Mass, having been previously
employed merely for private devotion. It was prescribed for universal
adoption in the sixteenth century. It seems that the serious and solemn
trochees were created particularly for the awful scene here described.
"This monumental piece of poetry could make even a Goethe tremble.
The reference to it in his Faust has been duly noted by the modern Christian
and non-Christian world of litterateurs. And even today it serves
to remind us that the poetical powers of the Middle Ages need fear nothing
by comparison with the poetry of a later period, indeed, that the
latter in great part shares in the heritage of the former" (A. Baumgartner,
S.J., Weltliteratur, IV, 458).
Exclusive of the last six verses, there are three double strophes
that repeat the same melody thrice. In the first strophe the second verse
extends beyond the melodic peak of the first verse. In still greater measure
the second double strophe predominates over the first and third. The
text concerning the blasts of the trumpet may have influenced the
composer. The third verse descends to low a once, the third double
strophe does the same twice. The fact that every strophe, as well as
every individual verse, closes on the tonic, heightens the force of this
chant and has the effect of the somber tolling of bells. Berlioz, who
employs all the possibilities of the modern orchestra in his Requiem, admits
that in the unbounded wealth of musical art there is nothing to
compare with the effect produced by this plainsong Sequence.
FIRST PART (STROPHES 1-6)
By its vivid portrayal of the end of the world and the final judgment,
this part grips one's very being.