Alleluia proper for the 6th week of Easter
  • Ryan MurphyRyan Murphy
    Posts: 79
    Which Alleluia proper do I use for the weekdays of the 6th week of Easter? Surrexit Christus, Exivi a Patre, or Spiritus sanctus docebit? (page 230-231 in the Graduale Romanum)
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    The way I read it, on tuesday, you'd use Cantate Domino. The rest of the week, I believe it would be Surrexit, because we are in year c (anno C) for Sundays and year 1 for weekdays.

    Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Here's the page spread in question:

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  • RobertRobert
    Posts: 343
    This is how I understand it as well, based on the instructions of the introduction to the Ordo Cantus Missae at para. 20

    http://www.gabrielmass.com/rac/cmaa/ordo-cantus-missae.pdf
  • SkirpRSkirpR
    Posts: 854
    First thing to keep in mind is that in situations like this the printed chants are what applies to the week, except for what exceptions may follow.

    So, in this case, the Alleluia chants for the week are Surrexit Christus and Exivi a Patre. These are then the chants for the weekdays of the 6th week of Easter, and you may choose one or the other.

    The exceptions are on the Sundays of Year A (Surrexit Christus, followed by the second reading and then Non vos relinquam), Year B (Exivi a Patre, followed by the second reading and then Ego vos elegi), Year C (Surrexit Christus or Exivi a Patre, followed by the second reading and then Spiritus sanctus docebit vos), and Mondays of any year (Cantate Domino).

    Make sense?

    P.S. So, Ben, just to clarify, Feria 2 is Monday (not Tuesday), and if the rubrics were referring to the whole week, it would not have read Dom. anno A, but just Anno A.

    The days of the week in Latin (according to the Church) are:

    Sunday: Dominica
    Monday: Feria 2
    Tuesday: Feria 3
    Wednesday: Feria 4
    Thursday: Feria 5
    Friday: Feria 6
    Saturday: Sabbato
  • MarkThompson
    Posts: 768
    The way I read it, on tuesday, you'd use Cantate Domino. The rest of the week, I believe it would be Surrexit, because we are in year c (anno C) for Sundays and year 1 for weekdays.

    Someone correct me if I'm wrong.


    So, in this case, the Alleluia chants for the week are Surrexit Christus and Exivi a Patre.


    Not quite. The "1" and "2" do not refer to the cycles of weekday readings, but rather to the fact that, in Paschal time, two alleluias are sung (the first takes the place of the gradual; there is no gradual in Paschal time). So this year (Year C), the responsorial psalm can be replaced with your choice of Surrexit or Exivi, and the alleluia before the Gospel (the "real" alleluia) is Spiritus sanctus docebit vos.

    I can't really tell why, in this case, Monday has a different alleluia given, nor why they don't indicate for which alleluia Cantate domino is supposed to substitute. However, the two chants given are both 2nd-alleluias, so one would guess that it replaces Spiritus sanctus docebit.
    Thanked by 1Robert
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    The '1' and '2' before the incipits of the verse refer to the 'First' and 'Second' Alleluias of Sundays in the Easter Season, not to weekdays year 1 and 2. On ferias there is only One Alleluia (even in Paschaltide), hence no number is given (simply Feria 2 'Cantate Domino).

    When the Graduale makes reference to the two-year ferial lectionary it uses the Roman numerals 'I' and 'II', not Arabic.
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    Shucks, hit the 'post' button, too late.
  • MarkThompson
    Posts: 768
    Haha, I strike again! This is what I'm capable of when I have my caffeine.
  • SkirpRSkirpR
    Posts: 854
    So, in this case, the Alleluia chants for the week are Surrexit Christus and Exivi a Patre.


    Not quite.


    Mark, I beg to differ. Yes, they are the default Alleluias for the Sixth Week of Easter - but by that I mean for the whole week, not necessarily Sunday. Actually, the more I think about it, I think we may be trying to say the same thing, just getting mixed up in describing it.

    Here is a chart indicating the possibilities for Alleluias of the Sixth Week of Easter:

    Sunday, Year A, Alleluia 1 (same place as Responsorial Psalm):
    Surrexit Christus

    Sunday, Year A, Alleluia 2 (same place as Gospel Acclamation):
    Non vos relinquam

    Sunday, Year B, Alleluia 1 (same place as Responsorial Psalm):
    Exivi a Patre

    Sunday, Year B, Alleluia 2 (same place as Gospel Acclamation):
    Ego vos elegi

    Sunday, Year C, Alleluia 1 (same place as Responsorial Psalm):
    Surrexit Christus OR Exivi a Patre

    Sunday, Year C, Alleluia 2 (same place as Gospel Acclamation):
    Spiritus sanctus docebit vos

    Monday, any year (only one on weekdays):
    Cantate Domino

    Tuesday-Saturday, any year (only one on weekdays)*:
    Surrexit Christus OR Exivi a Patre

    *Hence this is what's printed in the Graduale, as everything else above is an exception printed at the end of the Alleluias.
    Thanked by 1Ryan Murphy
  • MarkThompson
    Posts: 768
    Perhaps you are right; I don't want to claim supreme confidence on this. If that is so, though, then:

    1. What indication have we that weekdays get only one alleluia? They have both a responsorial psalm and an alleluia-before-the-Gospel, so which one does the alleluia from the Graduale take the place of?

    2. I think that the choice of Surrexit or Exivi on weekdays is correct for Year C, but that in the other years the alleluia(-s?) should follow the appropriate year. I have never heard of your idea that if a chant is printed on the day in question that makes it the default, while if it is only cross-referenced, because it already appeared somewhere else, then it has second-class status.
  • smvanroodesmvanroode
    Posts: 1,007
    1. What indication have we that weekdays get only one alleluia? They have both a responsorial psalm and an alleluia-before-the-Gospel, so which one does the alleluia from the Graduale take the place of?


    The Prænotanda of the Graduale Romanum says:

    9. Quoties una tantum fit lectio ante Evangelium, post eam cantatur Responsorium Graduale vel Alleluia cum suo verso. Tempore autem paschali canitur alterutrum Alleluia.

    9. When there is only one reading before the Gospel, the Gradual Responsory is sung after it, or the Alleluia with its verse. In Easter Time, however, either one of the Alleluia chants is sung.
    Thanked by 1MarkThompson
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    That's interesting. So the GR treats the Alleluia as something that occurs after the [second] reading (?). As opposed to (I assume, most of us) who understand it as something that happens before the Gospel.

    Any thoughts on this?

    (It sheds some light on Episcopalian practice, too: where the thing they sing before the Gospel is usually a hymn they call "the Gradual," which has no specific mention in the BCP, except a note that after each lesson, there may be sung a hymn, anthem, or psalm.)
  • MarkThompson
    Posts: 768
    Thanks, smvanroode. Yes, looking a little harder, I see that the Ordo Cantus Missae also says, "When there is only one reading before the Gospel, the Gradual Responsory is sung after it, or the Alleluia with its verse. In Paschaltide, either one of the Alleluia chants is sung."

    I assume it is licit to do the responsorial psalm followed by the Gregorian alleluia? But if so, that leads to the odd circumstance that, when the Gregorian alleluia is sung, the responsorial psalm is functionally optional.

    Adam: I don't think it is so much that the Alleluia is "treated as" a-thing-to-follow-the-second-reading, so much as that these rubrics give things in chronological order, using an "And then... Next... Followed by" kind of style.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    But do we think one or other is a more appropriate way of understanding it (or could we say one or the other has more precedence in a particular era)?
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