Chants of the Vatican Gradual, by Dom Johner - Church Music ...

Second Sunday of Advent 25
In olden times the neophytes used to sing this song during the procession
of thanksgiving which each day during Easter Week led them
to the baptismal font. There had they received grace, truth, and divine
adoption. We also belong to the number of those fortunate ones. How
happy we shall be when we can enter our celestial home, the heavenly
Jerusalem whose streets re-echo with the cry of Alleluia!
OFFERTORY (Ps. 84: 7 8)
1. Deus tu convertens vivifica- 1. O God, turning, thou wilt
bis nos, 2. et plebs tua laetabitur in bring us life, 2. and thy people shall
te:3. ostende nobis, Domine, miseri- rejoice in thee: 3. show us, 0 Lord,
cordiam tuam, 4. et salutare tuum thy mercy, 4. and grant us thy salda
nobis.
vation.
For a musician the change in the character of the melody at the
beginning of the third phrase over ostende with the resolved chord gb
bdb is obvious enough. Here and in the parallel sentence which follows
we have the expression of the great Advent petition contained in Psalm
84, which last Sunday formed the Alleluia-verse. And today it is the only
supplication found in the Mass chants. Hence it is well to leave the preceding
vivificdbis and laetabitur in their future forms; for this reason,
also, we have purposely selected the translation given above. God Himself
will again turn to us and bestow new life upon us; He it is who in
the preceding Gospel Himself said: "The dead rise again." He alone can
produce such an effect. This is forcibly brought out by the melody over
tu. Nobis and da, as well as (vivified)-bis and (lae)-tdbitur, have either
the same or a similar form of pressus. Care must be taken that these
forms are not sung too hurriedly; the bistrophas and tristrophas on c,
on the contrary, should be somewhat less prominent. Over (vivifi)-cdbis
the ascents gc and ad must not be overlooked. The second phrase rejoices
in the fact that we are allowed to be God's people (plebs tua), and
that He so graciously takes us under His protection. All chants of this
Sunday stress this joy, even more so than the chants of Gaudete
Sunday. God wishes to enrich us with sure and lasting joy; hence the
quiet seconds from (laetd)-bitur on. All this is not so much a supplication,
but rather a happy experiencing. With ostende begins the petition, borne
aloft by the joyous confidence of the first part. Tender half tones are
heard over misericordiam. In fact, it almost seems as if this feeling had
already influenced the close of Domine, so that the interval occurs five
times in all. Compare with it the beginning of the Introit for the second
Sunday after Easter, where the mercy of God is also expressed in half
tones, as well as the passage Domine, suavis ac mitis es from the Introit