Interesting approach to singing the communios with psalms verses
  • RobertRobert
    Posts: 343
    I was perusing this interesting German web site:

    http://www.gregor-und-taube.de/html/materialien.htm

    which has an online "restored", or corrected, version of the Graduale.

    What caught my eye (inter alia) is the way the communios are presented with their psalm verses. In this edition it appears they are meant to be sung as follows: Antiphon, psalm verse, final section of antiphon, psalm verse, antiphon, etc.

    e.g.: In splendoribus sanctorum, ex utero * ante luciferum genui te. Dixit dominum domino meo: "Sede a dextris meis." Ante luciferum genui te. Donec ponam inimicos tuos scabellum pedum tuorum. In splendoribus sanctorum, ex utero ante luciferum genui te. (etc.)

    This is a familiar pattern from the Office responsories, and the restored offertories of the Offertoriale Triplex. But has anyone ever heard of it for the Communio? Thoughts? The asterisk in this online edition doesn't correspond to the asterisk in the (Solesmes) Graduale Romanum.
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    Never heard of this approach.
  • David Sullivan
    Posts: 355
    Isn't this approach used, perhaps uniquely, for the Communio of the Requiem?
    Antiphon: Lux aeterna dona eis, Domine...
    Then a psalm verse.
    Followed by just the ending: Cum sanctis tuis in aeternum, quia pius es.

    Sorry, I don't have my chant books on hand at the moment...I'm relying on memory. I think I've sung it this way for Requiems in both new and old forms of Mass.
  • David AndrewDavid Andrew
    Posts: 1,206
    Interesting. . . isn't this the way the Invitatory is sung in the pre-VCII Divine Office? IIRC, there are two different ways for the Invitatory to be rendered, depending on whether it's sung or spoken.

    I'm not sure where that particular tradition came from, but bear in mind that prior to the codification of chant and chant books, each region had it's own way of rendering the chants, and by extension one would assume the texts as well. Perhaps this is a restoration of a truly ancient Germanic custom?
  • marek
    Posts: 17
    You can find Explanation in German in this pdf file: http://www.gregor-und-taube.de/Die_Repetenda.pdf.

    Very briefly: This way of repetition is set according to some ancient manuscripts, mostly Graduale di Albi (Bibliothèque Nationale de France lat. 776, sec. XI Graduale di Gaillac).
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