Masterpieces of Gregorian Chant / "Rorate caeli"
It is the introit of the fourth Sunday of Advent. In a brand-new performance presented by the "Cantori Gregoriani" and their Maestro
by Fulvio Rampi
TRANSLATION
Drop dew, O heavens, from above
and let the clouds rain the Just One:
let the earth be opened
and sprout forth the Savior.
The heavens are telling the glory of God
and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands.
Drop dew . . .
(Isaiah 45:8 / Psalm 18:1)
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The fourth Sunday of Advent was marked, in the ancient Roman liturgical books, as a Sunday that "vacat," that is missing, because the vigil begun the previous evening concluded at dawn with the Mass, which replaced the Sunday liturgical office.
It was only beginning in the 8th century, when the rites of the vigil were moved back to Saturday morning, that the Sunday was endowed with a Mass of its own.
This anomaly was born from the fact that the third Sunday of Advent coincided with the "tempora" of winter, one of the four "tempora," corresponding to the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday of the beginning of each of the four seasons. On these days, characterized by prayer and fasting, the ordinations of bishops, priests, and deacons were conducted.
Suppressed in the current liturgy, the four "tempora" were a living testimony of attachment to the land, expressed with a pronounced character of rural solemnity: a sort of celebration of the seasons, to attract the fruits of the earth and the blessings of God and to thank him for the harvest. The liturgy of the four "tempora" became a symbol of this richness of gifts, modifying its usual structure with the addition on Wednesday of a reading with the corresponding gradual chant and with seven more readings interspersed with graduals, hymns, and "tractus" at the celebration on Saturday.
This meant that our fourth Sunday of Advent was overshadowed a bit by this week of solemn and special thanksgiving. From being a "vacant" Sunday it then became the last Sunday of this liturgical season, but without the provision of new texts for the chants of the propers. These, in fact, were taken from the Mass of the previous Wednesday and adapted to the Sunday liturgy.
The Mass of "feria IV," the Wednesday of the "tempora" of Advent, was called during medieval times the "missa aurea beatae Mariae" because it was strongly Marian in tone and commemorated the prophecy of Isaiah about the virgin who conceives and gives birth to Emmanuel, God-with-us.
We therefore still find today, in the proper chants of this Mass, a clear Marian imprint, particularly in the offertory "Ave Maria" and in the communio "Ecce virgo concipiet."
The introit "Rorate caeli," for its part, since it constitutes an integral part and the "title" of this Mass, merits a few more observations.
The text of this piece is a faithful rendition of a verse from Isaiah. Unlike what was seen on the second Sunday of Advent in the introit "Populus Sion," in this case no operation has been carried out on the biblical text: there are no centonizations, adaptations, or modifications of the text, which is presented exactly as it appears in the Latin version of the Vulgate of Jerome.
At closer inspection, however, two modifications of the original Hebrew text have been made by Jerome himself. With respect to the recent translations of the Bible that are based on the original text in the Hebrew language, we note in Isaiah 45:8 two important variations: "iustum," the Just One, has taken the place of "iustitiam," justice, and "Salvatorem," the Savior, has replaced "salvationem," salvation.
Jerome's translation in a Christological vein appears here in all of its vividness and expressive power. The concepts of justice and salvation are embodied in the person of the Just One, the Savior. The prophecy of Isaiah is embodied in the figure of Christ, which not coincidentally becomes on the Wednesday of the winter "tempora" the "fruit of the earth" and gift of the clouds of heaven.
Advent in the flesh, the mystery of the incarnation, is here celebrated in all of its humanity and as a result is associated, in the other chants of the Mass just cited, with the figure of the Virgin mother.
The acoustical architecture designed by Gregorian chant for the "Rorate" is surprising, already in the musical composition of some of the phrases. Just as "desuper" (from above) moves in the highest register, so also "pluant iustum" (rain down the Just One) is realized in a descending line through a "rain" of notes.
In the same way, in the concluding phrase, the "earth" coincides with the lowest zone of melodic construction and determines, in relation to the structure of the first phrase, a clear timbre of "protus authenticus," that first mode with which the modal classification of the Gregorian "octoechos" begins.
But the fact that this introit is well founded in the first mode is declared even more clearly and unequivocally above all in incipit of the entire piece.
The imperative "Rorate" is proclaimed with a formula typical of the first mode: a formula defined as being "of accent," but that, in reality, is not limited to a simple emphasis of a tonic syllable. This is, instead, a real and proper expressive timbre, immediately declared and pointed out as the accentual summit of the whole composition and that, as such, colors the entire introit, influencing the modal structure in an unambiguous way.
The imperative "Rorate" is therefore endowed with an entirely special rhetorical heft: another matter, evidently, is the apostolic imperative of Paul that resounded in the introit of the third Sunday of Advent. On that "Gaudete," in fact, the accent was not definitive, because the true accentual focus was pushed back to the "semper" that closes the first semiphrase: "Gaudete in Domino semper," rejoice in the Lord always.
The expressive power of the "Rorate" becomes the symbol of an anticipation that becomes ever more anxious and that the liturgy of the Divine Office of the last days of Advent summarizes in the famous seven antiphons for the Magnificat called the "O antiphons" from their incipit: "O Wisdom," "O Emmanuel," "O Adonai". . .
Ancient Gregorian monody, in short, advises us with growing intensity that the time of our salvation is near and makes itself the voice of the Church that invokes the coming of its Lord.
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To learn more about the "O antiphons":
> Advent in Music. Seven Antiphons, All Worth Discovering Again_________
MAESTRO RAMPI AND HIS CHOIRFulvio Rampi is a Gregorianist of international fame. He was born and lives in Cremona. He teaches Gregorian chant at the musical conservatory "G. Verdi" in Turin. In 1986 he founded the choir "Cantori Gregoriani," a professional ensemble of male voices, of which he is the permanent conductor. He has performed concerts with these groups in various countries, has recorded for important music publishers, and has done many recordings for radio and television. In 2010 he created the Coro Sicardo, with a vast repertoire of classic and contemporary polyphony. Noteworthy among his publications is "Del canto gregoriano," Rugginenti Editore, Milan, 2006.
On the discography of the Cantori Gregoriani:
> Cantori GregorianiAnd to listen to some of their recordings:
> Cantori Gregoriani / DownloadsA summary of Rampi's vision of what Gregorian chant is and what it can again be in the life of the Church is found in these two conferences of 2012:
> I - Il canto gregoriano: un estraneo in casa sua> II - Il canto dell’assemblea liturgica fra risorsa ed equivoco__________
All of the pieces of Gregorian chant presented and performed for www.chiesa by Maestro Fulvio Rampi and by his choir:
> Masterpieces of Gregorian Chant
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The same introit "Rorate caeli" can be heard in a performance by the Benedictine nuns of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie di Orte in this video from TV 2000, starting at 10:54 into the clip:
> Rorate caeliJust as the introit of the first Sunday of Advent, starting at 12:15 into the clip:
> Ad te levaviAnd of the third Sunday of Advent, starting at 13:07 into the clip:
> Gaudete in Domino__________
The musical score reproduced above is taken from the "Graduale Triplex seu Graduale Romanum Pauli PP. VI Cura Recognitum," Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes, 1979, p. 34.
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English translation by
Matthew Sherry, Ballwin, Missouri, U.S.A.
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For more news and commentary, see the blog that Sandro Magister maintains, available only in Italian:
> SETTIMO CIELO
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21.12.2013
