An Anomaly? - or, whither Moyses?
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,417
    The offertory antiphon for last Sunday had as subject matter Moses' querying the Lord about his anger and beseeching respite from the same. Those who did this antiphon (or, have done it before) at mass will have noted that the first clause is stated twice in succession to music that is almost identical. I do not recall off-hand another chant which is characterised by such a repetition of text and music. Can someone weigh in on this? Is it an anomaly? Is there a purpose undetected?

    Of related interest - the mass at which this was sung was at St Basil's Chapel at the Univ of St Thomas, Houston. It was Latin Novus Ordo with lesser propers, and having the ordinary (Orbis factor) sung very well by the people from chant notation without organ. The previous four weeks have witnessed this congregation (of about 250) singing the same mass in English, perfectly in tune, reading square notes with no organ. (One might add that outstanding acoustics help! St Basil's is, without question, Houston's finest sacred acoustical space.) This was the final mass sung by the summer class, numbering about 20, of St Basil's School of Gregorian Chant. The fall class begins with 3 hour Saturday mornings in September and will climax with high mass (Novus Ordo) on the Vigil of All Saints.
  • Aristotle EsguerraAristotle Esguerra
    Posts: 1,186
    The only Offertory antiphon I could come up with was the De profúndis (33rd Sunday, OF), but the repetition of "De profúndis…" bookends the "Domine, exaudi…"

    Precátus est Moyses is an exceptionally beautiful chant; I approach it with the utmost respect. And with the hope that I don't meditate too much on the words while chanting it, lest I render myself unable to sing due to the lump that forms in my throat.
  • AngelaRAngelaR
    Posts: 319
    If I remember correctly, that is the same proper that the advanced women's schola sang at the Colloquium this year, and I remember Dr. Mahrt posing the schola a similar question. I have to look at my notes to remember the answer....anyone?
  • AngelaRAngelaR
    Posts: 319
    And congrats on the school, BTW. I just got the promotional materials for it from Lowell earlier this week; we're doing something similar in Peoria,IL at the cathedral. It looks like you guys are doing some incredible work!
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    http://musicasacra.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=766 this came up last year. The theory put forward is that the text represented Moses's stuttering.
  • Carl DCarl D
    Posts: 992
    Yes, I got the flyer from St Basil's as well. But Texas is a bit of a commute for me... ;-)

    Great stuff, Lowell!
  • marymezzomarymezzo
    Posts: 236
    What does Dom Johner say about it in Chants of the Vatican Gradual?

    I'd check there too . . .
  • David Sullivan
    Posts: 355
    There seem to be a very few Mass proper chants with repeated text. The only ones I've encountered are Offertories, the two mentioned here (Precatus est Moyses and De profundis) plus the two Jubilate Deo offertories, which have repeated text, but much elaborated music for the repetition.

    Taking marymezzo's suggestion, Dom Johner says this about the repetition in Jubilate Deo (the one for 2nd Sunday after Epiphany and 4th Sunday after Easter): "This song of thanksgiving is the most animated, if not of plain song as a whole, then surely of all the Offertories. The pleasant repetition of the text Jubilate...is paralleled in very few Offertories. Such repetitions are practically unknown in plain song. The first two phrases predominate not only by reason of their length, but above all through the joy that wells up from within...."

    About Precatus est Moyses, Dom Johner is quite exstatic: "Here everything--the content, the construction, the expression--is on a grand scale. One can almost see the palpitations of the singer's breast, as it rises and sinks under the excessive emotions that rush in upon his soul..." But he doesn't say much about the repeated text. In the 1962 Missal, this Offertory is sung for the 12th Sunday after Pentecost, coming up in two weeks.

    Lately, I've been thinking of the Mass chants as a sung form of lectio divina, meditation on the texts or the music. It strikes me in the Alleluias, where the jubilus is so often repeated at the end of the verse, then again for the closing Alleluia. And in these Offertories, with repeated text.
  • Aristotle EsguerraAristotle Esguerra
    Posts: 1,186
    "Lately, I've been thinking of the Mass chants as a sung form of lectio divina"

    Fr. Scott Haynes, SJC agrees with this.

    (As do I.)
  • AngelaRAngelaR
    Posts: 319
    Hi David, now that I think about it, the proper I was referring to had a repeating *melody*, which is not what you were asking about. That's what happens when you read posts too late at night, huh?

    Did we meet in Solesmes last year? Your name looks eerily familiar, and your comment about Lectio sounds a lot like a theme that ran through Father Saulnier's talks that summer. Now that I'm directing a diocesan school of Gregorian chant, I've been seeking ways to incorporate the Lectio aspect more. Any suggestions? I'll be bringing in a priest later in the school year to spend an hour doing Lectio with our schola, but I'm also seeking ways to incorporate it in our daily rehearsals.
  • mahrt
    Posts: 517
    There are several offertories with repeating texts, but evidently for a variety of purposes. The most compelling of these is the mode-one Jubilate Deo. That this one of the most beautiful chants of the year is attested by its occurrence on three different sundays of the year (I cannot think of another chant that is sung as frequently.

    Repetition in this Jubilate Deo serves a very pointed purpose: the first statement is an exhortation to sing joyfully to God (actually to jubilate, to sing a wordless melisma); this statement begins with a familiar mode-one intonation and then does another typical mode-one thing, it moved to a mode on F, centering on a triad on F and leading to a kind of half-cadence on the reciting note, A. This effectively introduced the repetition of the same text. But now it is no longer an exhortation but a response to the exhortation which constitutes a long melisma, filling out both the plagal and authentic ranges of the F mode and coming to a strong cadence on F. The second half of the first psalm verse (psalmum dicite . . .) begins on F and leads to another half cadence, which introduced the next psalm verse (venite . . . ) , which then returns to the original mode one by emphasizing A and D and through cadences to G leads eventually down to D. The point here is that the initial psalm verse is set off by it's own mode, in which the exhortation is answered by doing what was exhorted--singing a melisma. The mode-five Jubilate Deo follows the same pattern, though the modal ordering is not so pointed.

    Precaris eat Moyses is quite different. The piece is not based on a psalm, but rather is a narrative text, in which the center text is the plea of Moses, set in a heightened musical style. The finction of the repetition, as I see of, is rhetorical: it draws particular attention to what follows it. The repeated introduction is in the plagal ambitis, while Moses's plea venturesomto the authentic ambitus.

    Two other offertories show a very different pattern of repetition. De profundis and Domine in auxilium. Both of these chants begin with a short phrase, quite like a simple antiphon, which is then repeated at the end of the chant. This looks to me like the remains of a brief rrsppnsorial or antiphonal refrainbwhich would have been alternated with psalm verses, either melismatic or recitative.

    This small number of offertories with repetitions set the genre of offertory off from the other Mass propers, which by my recollectio show no such repetition.
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