EF: two Alleluias during Easter
  • gregpgregp
    Posts: 632
    This is an embarrassing question for me to ask, but this is the first year we have sung the Alleluias from the Liber Usualis during Eastertide (previously we were working up to them with Rossini).

    Something was bothering me, and I realized this week that I'm not sure whether to sing the Alleluia after the first antiphon. During the rest of the year, it's no problem:

    Gradual
    A) Alleluia is intoned by cantors
    B) Alleluia is repeated by schola
    C) Antiphon
    D) Alleluia is repeated by schola.

    What's been nagging at me is the suspicion that, with two Alleluias, maybe something should be different? I can't find anything specific to address this, but does one repeat the first Alleluia after the antiphon, or not?

    In other words, is this the proper sequence?

    A) Alleluia 1 intoned
    B) Alleluia 1 repeated
    C) Antiphon 1
    D) Alleluia 2 intoned
    E) Alleluia 2 repeated
    F) Antiphon 2
    G) Alleluia 2 repeated

    To add even more confusion, looking in the Liber Usualis for the 5th Sunday after Easter, the usual symbol to repeat the intonation of the Alleluia 2 (Exivi a Patre) is not present. Intentional or a misprint?
  • JulieCollJulieColl
    Posts: 2,465
    Hi GregP,

    This is the order we follow which is slightly different from yours:

    Lesser Alleluia
    Incipit by cantor
    Schola repeats incipit and sings jubilus
    Verse
    No repeat

    Greater Alleluia
    Incipit by cantor
    Schola sings jubilus and does not repeat incipit
    Verse
    Schola repeats entire Alleluia (incipit and jubilus)

    Hope that didn't make you even more confused. : )

    J.

    P.S. Jeff O. wrote an article about here.
    Thanked by 1gregp
  • CCoozeCCooze
    Posts: 1,259
    Julie is correct, and this format is supported by the Liber (see Rubrics for the Chant of the Mass pp xv & xvj).

    "In Paschal Time, the Gradual is omitted and in its place the Alleluia, Alleluia
    is sung with its Verse as above [the first Alleluia is sung by
    one or two voices as far as the asterisk * : and then the choir repeats the Alleluia.
    continuing with the neum or jubilus which prolongs the syllable a. The cantors
    next sing the Verse, which is finished by the full choir, as before, beginning at
    the asterisk.]. Then one Alleluia immediately follows, which must be begun by one or two cantors until the neum is reached, when it is not repeated, but finished by the full choir. The Verse and one Alleluia are sung at the end, in the manner above described [When the Verse is finished, the cantor or cantors repeat the Alleluia,
    and the full choir sings only the closing neum.]."

    The brackets (for the purpose of reading in an order that makes sense) and emphasis are mine, but the words are directly from the Liber. This is why the sign to repeat the incipit isn't on the second Alleluia.
    Thanked by 2gregp bonniebede
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,092
    I'm relieved that we've been doing it right. It really isn't obvious.
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,934
    Now THIS is the sort of thing that needed to be cleared up in the 1955 reforms.
  • mahrt
    Posts: 517
    It should be noted that if you are singing Gregorian propers in the OF, you can also sing two alleluias, the first replacing the gradual, and the second then serving in the normal place of the alleluia. In the OF, one alleluia thus follows each lesson. The Graduale Romanum of 1974 prescribes this manner is performance: the alleluia is intoned entirely by cantors and then repeated by the choir The verse is sung by the cantors and then the alleluia is repeated by the choir. This applies to each alleluia in the Easter season.
    Thanked by 1gregp
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