Chants of the Vatican Graduale - MusicaSacra

56 Christmas Day—Third Mass
what thoughts are flooding her heart. A tremor of holy ecstasy seizes
her: Thou, 0 Almighty One, art mine, my very own, my Child. And
the divine Child (the twenty-seventh verse of the same psalm suggests
this thought) addresses the most pure Virgin thus: And thou art my
Mother!—Let us kneel at the side of the Mother of God, to pray and sing
with her, and in union with her to offer up the gifts of our faith and love
and adoration.
(The "Stabat Mater" in Liszt's Christus closely approaches the spirit
of this Offertory.)
COMMUNION (Ps. 97: 3)
Viderunt omnes fines terrae salu- All the ends of the earth have
tare Dei nostri. seen the salvation of our God.
We hear this same melody, in a happy adaptation, on the feast of
St. Philip Neri (May 26). The jubilant salutdre there occurs over the
word exsultaverunt—my heart and my flesh rejoice. Less happy is the
adaptation for the feast of the Holy Family; its adaptation in the Mass
of the holy Lance and Nails (on the Friday after the first Sunday of
Lent) to the text: "They looked upon Him whom they have pierced,
and the foundations of the earth were shaken," is strange, to say the
least. No objection can be made to the treatment of the word-accents;
but our jubilant salutdre is there sung to the very dissimilar mover entur.
In all probability the opening word, Viderunt, led to the choice of the
melody proper to the*Communion Viderunt. These remarks, be it said,
are not made merely to find fault. They should help us, rather, to a
deeper understanding of the appropriateness and of the beauty of our
present Communion song. If we then compare it with the same text
used in the first part of today's Gradual, we get an illuminating insight
into the stylistic differences of the two chants.
Terrae and salutdre mark the high points of the melody. The connection
is immediately evident: salvation has come to the world. The
momentous promise so solemnly uttered on the vigil of Christmas that
"all flesh shall see the salvation of our God," is now perfectly realized;
and from overflowing hearts joyous thanks ascend to God. When we
consider, moreover, how great is the number of those who have not yet
heard the message of Christmas, who know nothing of the Babe of Bethlehem
who came to save them and who would fill the hearts of all with
His grace and peace and love; when we consider that we are privileged
to look upon Him, that we are even allowed in Holy Communion to
taste and see "how sweet He is," then our salutdre will have a particularly
radiant ring. The notes that come after the lengthened c should be