Discrepancy in Mode for Communion for Second Sunday after Epiphany.
  • WJA
    Posts: 237
    The 1961 Graduale Romanum says the communion for the second Sunday after Epiphany is Mode VI, but Versus Psalmorum and Canticorum says the verse is Mode V (and the verse is clearly set to the Mode V formula).

    I came across this discrepancy because the Communio collection on Musicasacra.com has the antiphon with its verses, and says everything is Mode VI, but when you look at the Mode VI Gloria Patri that goes with the Communio collection (solemn, introit version, not office) it doesn't work, the Mode V Gloria Patri does.

    I am guessing the Mode in the GR is the typo, which got repeated in the Communio collection, unless the typesetters for the Versus Psalmorum and Canticorum went completely bonkers and not only cited the wrong mode but set the music to the wrong mode.
    introit.pdf
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    psalm-verse.pdf
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    dicitdominus.pdf
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    gloriapatri.pdf
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  • smvanroodesmvanroode
    Posts: 1,000
    Hmm. The 1974 Graduale Romanum (p. 263-264) also indicates that the mode of this antiphon is VI, and for this edition all mode indications have been re-typeset. However, it also suggests that ad libitum the psalm may be sung to V toni (g).

    To make things more complicated: Gregor und Taube indicates mode VI, doesn't mention mode V at all, but also provides an East Frankish rendition of mode I.
  • Richard R.
    Posts: 776
    A good example of a mixed mode antiphon. Remember, the chants weren't written in a particular mode; the mode was assigned well after the fact, based on the prevailing tonality of the chant. In this case, the prevailing mode is VI for the first three lines (recitation on la), and V for the last two lines (recitation mostly on do). Since the verses follow this predominantly V feeling, and given the overall wide range of the chant, the editor thought the mode V psalm tone a better idea than VI.

    Another point is the dramatic recitation going on here, with the words of our Lord in a low register (a la the Passions), and the words of the architriclinus in a (presumably inebriated) high register, with the narrator navigating between the two. Great stuff.
    Thanked by 6canadash smvanroode CHGiffen Kathy Heath CCooze
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