Alter cantus Ps. 113, Liber Usualis 1928
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    I have not used the Liber Usualis very much, being in an OF parish, but I have been looking through my copy, 1928, a little more lately. I found on pp 1582-3 two alternate settings of Pss 112 & 113 to Tonus Peregrinus, and was startled to see two footnotes (in vv 21 & 23 of Ps 113) for alternate versions of the mediant cadence: La Te Sol La; as opposed to the usual: La Te La Sol Fa, (or La Sol Te La Sol Fa).

    Does anyone know the provenance of this?
  • Cantus67Cantus67
    Posts: 208
    Interesting, I would guess that it's a case of regional usage and not universal? Very interesting.
  • ContinuousbassContinuousbass
    Posts: 357
    Could it be a "borrow" from the mediatur of VI modus: la te la sol la?
  • ContinuousbassContinuousbass
    Posts: 357
    Perhaps emanating from a chant of the LXX psalm 115, which has κύριον and κυρίῳ at many mediatur positions.
  • ContinuousbassContinuousbass
    Posts: 357
    In spite of the enforced segregation of the Jews, exchanges with the Gentile world were frequent, continuous, and bilateral. The synagogue gave to the Early Christian church some of its ancient melodies; the recitation formula of the psalm B'tset Yisrael ("When Israel went forth out of Egypt"), for example, survives in the Gregorian chant repertoire as the tonus peregrinus . It is thanks to a Christian that we have the oldest surviving example of written-down Jewish music, the beautiful Eulogy of Moses. It was composed by Giovanni, a monk, who, converting to Judaism, took the name Obadiah. Since he was a child of the Mediterranean world -- Sicily, then Egypt -- we have imagined accompaniments of near-Eastern kind to this sketchily notated melody.

    ~ http://www.bostoncamerata.com/sacredbridge.html
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • ContinuousbassContinuousbass
    Posts: 357
    Here's a link to the sephardic peregrinus chant:
    http://www.londonsephardimusic.org/files/Music/DH/ps115b.mp3Listen for the intonation of "יְהוָה" in the 115:13 sounds like fa sol la te la. Vs 15 "לַיהוָה" has a turn figure with an upper-neighbor termination. I suppose the Latin chant picked up on a variation of this as la te sol la from one of these traditions.
  • Bruce E. Ford
    Posts: 431
    Pothier did not include the G in the original Vatican edition. Solesmes got permission to add it, just as it got permission not to used the oxytonic cadential formulas Pothier prescribed. Many assume that Solesmes wanted the G included for the sake of consistency, because in all the other psalm tones of the office any "preparatory syllables" that immediately follow the reciting note are pitched BELOW the reciting note. (When the B-flat immediately follows the recitation on A, singers are inclined to think it is an accent-bearing note --as in Tone 1 and in one form of Tone 6-- but it is not. I don't know how frequently the G appears in medieval sources; but from a practical viewpoint I think Solesmes was --in this matter-- right. (More often I agree with Pothier.)
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    Interesting.

    I found the 1891 Liber Antiphonarius (Pothier) on CCW. He gives this alternate (La Sol Te Sol La), and labels it "meditatio correpta".

    I have yet to find it in any 'pre-Solesmes' chant books (i.e. Pustet, etc.).
  • Ben_WhitworthBen_Whitworth
    Posts: 90
    Mattias Lundberg's book "Tonus Peregrinus" (Ashgate, 2011) focuses on the uses of the tone in polyphonic composition, but if I recall correctly there is a comparative table in the first chapter showing the *many* forms this Psalm tone has taken.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    Ben, is there any way you could post that? I'd like to see it.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Ben_WhitworthBen_Whitworth
    Posts: 90
    I was sent the book when I was reviews editor for a journal, but I passed it onto a reviewer, so I no longer have access to it. Sorry I can't be more helpful.
  • Bruce E. Ford
    Posts: 431
    Salieri:

    Thank you

    I think Pothier's provision of an abrupt mediation for Tonus Peregrinus is very interesting; but I do not understand why he included the preparatory G in it but not in the normal mediation. Do you think the preparatory G was intended to alert the singers to the change in the final note?
  • dad29
    Posts: 2,232
    Bach used that melody (played by instruments, not sung) in his Magnificat in the Suscepit Israel section. See: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/CM/Magnificat.htm

    Interesting, because of the (possible) Sephardic origin of the melody.

    He also used it in his German-language Magnificat.
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