Quick Latin Question: Deus Conditor Alme
  • TheUbiquitous
    Posts: 70
    Mass XVIII sometimes bears the above name. Is it "God, Loving Father?" I recognize from a quick trip to Wiktionary the vocative alme, but I don't know how to use it.
  • MarkThompson
    Posts: 768
    It approximately means, "O God, nourishing Founder." All three words are vocative, although only almus is capable of taking the -e ending that makes that clear. Conditor is "a maker, builder, framer, establisher, founder, author, compiler" (Lewis & Short), and almus is "nourishing, affording nourishment, cherishing ...—Hence, genial, restoring, reviving, kind, propitious, indulgent, bountiful, etc." (id.).
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • smvanroodesmvanroode
    Posts: 998
    The text is derived from a trope that was once sung to the melody of this Kyrie. The first verse of this trope was:

    Deus, genitor alme,
    Supplicamus omnes te,
    Nostra delicta parce.

    See C. Blume, H.M. Bannister, Tropen des Missalen im Mittelalter I (Leipzig, 1905), p. 189 for the entire text.
    Thanked by 3CHGiffen Salieri M. Jackson Osborn
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    Out of curiosity, are there any collections that contain the tropes with notation ("noted" as we would have said in the days of Thomas Helmore)?
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    Yes, Anton Stingl, Jr. has published two small books presenting the troped portions of the Kyriale, notated nicely.

  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    I believe I've seen some in the Cantus Selecti.
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