It's the same melody, I think, by design, but not the design you think. We're not comparing weddings and funerals. If you look at the Easter Vigil, three tracts in a row (or 4?) have the same melody.

the church in her infinite wisdom knows and wishes to share with us that marriage is the beginning of the end

lol

@PaxTecum

the church in her infinite wisdom knows and wishes to share with us that marriage is the beginning of the end

You laugh, but I was seriously thinking exactly that. Marriage is the continuation of the cycle of life and death.

@Salieri

If you sing a lot of chant, both for the Mass and Office, you'll notice the highly formulaic structure of many of them.

Yes.

There seem to be distinctly Marian motifs, so aren't there "deathly" motifs, too? I tagged my question "Semiology"; does semiology study how certain motifs pertain to certain themes?

I don't know if semiology deals with specific rhetorical devices as such, in my experience, semiology deals instead with the study of the ancient neumes in order to decipher their correct performance practice, and with melodic restoration; i.e. whether a note should be long or short, or whether it should be a B or a C, etc.

I wouldn't necessarily attribute too many extra musical "meanings" to particular formulae in responsorial chants or psalmody, whether prolix or simple. If certain stock melismata in these two Mode II Graduals are associated with a particular idea in these two chants, then they have to be applicable in all other instances, including when they set the words "et" or "sed" or whatever. You would also have to approach the Tracts, the Alleluias, the Short Responsories of the Office, and the Responsorial Psalms of the Simplex, and possibly even the Psalm-tones, in the same way, since they are all more or less ornate formulae for the recitation of psalmody.

To Salieri's point, I think that Christus factus est is one of the few that actually varies among mode V graduals, though the clef change at the verse is still typical. The Sundays after Pentecost and even many of the feasts of that season, are a joy, because the beginning and end is repetitive. The verses are more challenging, but I don't sing those!

Chris, it's four or five, depending on whether you do the blessing of the font or not; the Alleluia intervenes, but in any case, all of the mode VIII tracts share melodic features just like most mode VIII tracts do, again as Salieri saays. Likewise, the mode II tracts, of which there are far fewer, are similar, but I think that it's somewhat less obvious.

Deacon Fritz,

The humorous value of your example is lower octane than marriage and death.

There’s also the shorter example of Credo IV quoting the opening of the sequence Dies Irae at the phrase “passus et sepultus est”.

@Salieri: Perhaps I mean tropes?
What's the study of tropes called?