Corpus Christi Matins - Progression of psalms tones/responsories modes numbers?
  • Jacques PerrièreJacques Perrière
    Posts: 139
    Hello,
    Does anybody know about this numeric progression of psalms tones/responsories modes numbers at Corpus Christi Matins? I find it strange if not funny. It is page 922 to 939 in The Liber Usualis and it goes this way between psalms and responsories:

    1st Nocturn
    Ps. 1 tone 1D
    Ps. 4 tone 2D
    Ps. 15 tone 3a

    2nd Nocturn
    Ps. 19 tone 4E
    Ps. 22 tone 5a
    Ps. 41 tone 6F

    3rd Nocturn
    Ps. 42 tone 7a
    Ps. 80 tone 8G
    Ps. 83 tone 6F

    See the progression in psalm tone numbers? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8


    1st Nocturn
    Resp. 1 mode 1
    Resp. 2 mode 2
    Resp. 3 mode 3

    2nd Nocturn
    Resp. 4 mode 5
    Resp. 5 mode 6
    Resp. 6 mode 7

    3rd Nocturn
    Resp. 7 mode 7
    Resp. 8 mode 8
    Te Deum mode 3

    Here it is not a strict progression in mode numbers but still: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 7, 8.


    Thanked by 2chonak SkirpR
  • rich_enough
    Posts: 1,033
    This is also a feature of the vespers antiphons of this feast - the first is in mode I, the second in mode II, and so on through the fifth antiphon (Liber usualis, pp. 956-57).

    You can also see this in the vespers for Trinity Sunday (pp. 914-15), first and second vespers of St. Joseph (March 19, pp. 1401-02 and 1405-07) and to a lesser extent, in the vespers for the Feast of the Sacred Heart (pp. 977-78). Seems like it's a feature of some later feasts of a certain (late medieval?) vintage; it does not happen with many of the more recent feasts (Christ the King, Immaculate Conception, Assumption, Holy Family, etc.). I haven't looked at the matins of these feasts.
    Thanked by 1Jacques Perrière
  • Protasius
    Posts: 468
    It is indeed a feature of offices newly composed in the Middle Ages. The Catholic Encyclopedia refers to that explicitly in some article, but I cannot remember which.
  • Jacques PerrièreJacques Perrière
    Posts: 139
    Addendum: looking into the Liber Responsorialis 1895, monastic version used in Solesmes. Page 119 is Matins for Corpus Christi:

    1st Nocturn
    Ps. 1 tone 1D
    Ps. 4 tone 2D
    Ps. 15 tone 3a
    Ps. 19 tone 4E
    Ps. 22 tone 5a
    Ps. 41 tone 6F

    Resp. 1 mode 1
    Resp. 2 mode 2
    Resp. 3 mode 3
    Resp. 4 mode 4

    2nd Nocturn
    Ps. 42 tone 7a
    Ps. 80 tone 8G
    Ps. 83 tone 6F
    Ps. 84 tone 8G
    Ps. 86 tone 7a
    Ps. 98 tone 3a

    Resp. 5 mode 5
    Resp. 6 mode 6
    Resp. 7 mode 7
    Resp. 8 mode 1

    3rd Nocturn
    Resp. 9 mode 7
    Resp. 10 mode 8
    Resp. 11 mode 1
    Resp. 12 mode 6

    -------------------------
    ... I was wondering why there was a missing mode 4 responsory in the progression in mode numbers 1/2/3/etc. as seen in the Liber Usualis. That's because it existed before in the old schema of Matins.

    For the poetry of it, this is what the missing responsory 4 was saying:

    « Panis quem ego dabo, caro mea est pro mundi vita.
    Litigabant ergo Judaei, dicentes :
    * Quomodo potest hic nobis dare carnem suam ad manducandum.
    V. Locutus est populus contra Dominum :
    Anima nostra nauseat super cibo isto levissimo.
    * Quomodo ...
    Gloria ... (sung with the melody of the verse)
    * Quomodo ... »
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