The
Roots of the Western Music
On the first day of
Christmas there are
three different Masses celebrated by the Catholic Church - the first on
Christmas Eve, the second early in the morning, and the third before
midday. Each of these Masses has its own Proper,
i.e. its own
sequence, changing from day to day, of chants for the Introit, Gradual,
Alleluia, Offertory, and Communion, accompanied by the fixed chants in
the Ordinary of the Mass, which are the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, the
Sanctus and Benedictus, and the Agnus Dei. This recording includes all
the music sung at the third Mass of Christmas, with
the exception of the Credo. It is framed by the hymns "Christe
redemptor" and "A solis ortus", which
belong, however, not within the liturgy of the Mass, but to the divine
office, the so-called canonical hours.
Gregorian chant, which the Second Vatican Council expressly authorised
in its privileged position in the liturgy, is sung in unison; in the
form developed over several centuries it represents not only the
culmination in the West of an elaborate monophonic style but also the
roots of Western music as a whole. It is not ordered on our system of
major and minor keys but on the principle, derived from Greek music, of
so-called ecclesiastical modes, in which the natural semitones from E
to F and B to C always fall at different points in the scale. This
produces an unparalleled melodic diversity, but also an individual
expressive character for each of these eight modes. As a striking
example of this may be adduced the resplendent seventh mode, which
gives the Christmas Introit "Puer natus est"
its festive, jubilant quality. For the Ordinary of the third Mass of
Christmas the fifth from the Roman gradual, in the eighth mode, was
selected in this recording. It is intended for feast days and is
suitably exuberant in its soaring melismata, particularly in the Kyrie,
Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. It figures under the title "Kyrie
magnae Deus potentiae",
a so-called trope, such as was interpolated into the Kyrie in centuries
past. The Council of Trent did away with this farcing.
This recording also offers chants from the days around Christmas,
mainly taken from the Propers of Masses. The Introit "Hodie
scietis", the Gradual on the same text, the Alleluia "Crastina
die", and the Offertory "Tollite portas"
are taken from the Mass on the eve of the Christmas festival (the
Vigil). The extensive Gradual in the second mode is a particularly fine
example of wide-ranging melismatic art. The Alleluia "Multifarie
olim",
in the seventh mode, was sung at the Mass for the Feast of Our Lord's
Circumcision on January 1, the eighth day of Christmas. The Introit "Dum
medium", in the ceremonious eighth mode, comes from the Mass
for the Sunday within Christmas week.
The two chants from the Mass for the Feast of the Epiphany (Three
Kings) on January 6 are of particular importance, for the Proper to
this Mass is one of the oldest and most beautiful of the church year.
We hear the Introit "Ecce advenit" in the second
mode, and the Gradual "Omnes de Saba" rings out
solemnly once again in the fifth mode. The Responsory "O
magnum mysterium" and the Antiphon "Alma
redemptoris mater"
are not part of the liturgy of the Mass but of the divine office. The
latter is one of the four so-called Marian Antiphons, which were sung
in turn at the various festival times in the church year. The "Alma
redemptoris" is assigned to the Christmas period.
Alfred Beaujean
(Translation: Robert Jordan)