Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

All Souls Day 481
Great difficulties are experienced in the explanation of this text.
Some would translate defunctorum not by "departed," but by "dying."
Considered in this light, the prayer carries us to the moment of death,
where it will be decided whether the soul will be condemned to eternal
darkness or whether it will attain to perpetual light. We may pray thus
for those who will die today, as well as for all men, whom, as today's
Preface says, "the certainty of dying afflicteth;" we can also call to mind
the approaching hour of our own dissolution. In the present instance,
llbera does not signify "deliver," but rather "preserve from," just as
the various invocations of the Litany of the Saints do not always presuppose
that we have been afflicted with the evils there enumerated, but
pray for protection against and preservation from them. Hence we here
implore the King of glory to preserve the dying from the pains and the
darkness of hell. This first part, with the twofold libera, is the negative
part.
The significant sed leads to the second, the positive part, with its
petition for the "holy light." St. Michael the standard-bearer, was
once victorious in the struggle against the evil spirits; may he lead also
our souls to true peace. He is the angel who bears the gifts and the
prayers of the faithful to heaven, letting them ascend like sweet-smelling
incense (Offertory for his feast); may he bring our souls after that most
important moment of death to the holy light, so that we also may become
partakers of the promises made by God to Abraham. May God
become our reward exceeding great.
This antiphon is perhaps native to Ireland. Originally the verse
did not belong to it. In reality it is a Secret, a silent prayer for the deceased.
Today's sacrifice, however, is also a sacrifice of praise, because
it is the Sacrifice of Christ. It is Christ who imparts to it its efficacy.
Hence we confidently hope that the departed, by virtue of this sacrifice,
may pass from death to life. The verse harks back to the last phrase of
the antiphon. The composer has treated the two parts as a whole.
The melody is not so tender as that of the Introit, nor so powerful
as that of the Libera. It is serene, serious, a prayer with restrained emotion.
Frequently it recites on the tonic. Only in two passages does the
melody become somewhat florid, first to give the words Rex gloriae prominence,
and secondly with semini, that by means of tone-painting it may
cast a sweeping glance over the innumerable children of Abraham, entrusted
to him by virtue of God's promise. The passage d f e d e c corresponds
to d f e f g e. Christe rhymes with (glori)-ae, and the two libera
have similar introductions. Alternately the melody over defunctorum is
expanded and contracted over de prof undo lacu, ne absorbeat eas tdrtarus,
Abrahae promisisti, (a)-nimdbus illis, (me)-moriam fdcimus. Related to