Masterpieces of Gregorian Chant / The antiphon of the resurrection of Lazarus
It is the communio of the fifth Sunday of Lent. Here in a brand-new performance presented to us by the "Cantori Gregoriani" and their Maestro
by Fulvio Rampi
TRANSLATION
The Lord, seeing the sisters of Lazarus
who were weeping at the tomb,
broke out weeping before the Jews
and cried out in a loud voice: Lazarus, come out.
And there emerged with hands and feet wrapped in strips of cloth
the one who had been dead for four days.
(John 11:33,35,43,44,39)
Come, let us worship and bow down before the Lord;
let us weep before him who has made us,
because he is the Lord our God.
(Psalm 95:6-7).
And there emerged with hands and feet . . .
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The communion antiphons of the Lenten season demonstrate the complexity of the liturgical observances that determined their placement and the various rearrangements.
The most immediate lesson that can be gathered from this is that a Gregorian communio is not - as perhaps is generally thought - a Eucharistic chant. The text of this moment of the Mass, which in most cases is taken from the book of Psalms, instead alludes to the Gospel reading of that same celebration and constitutes a further commentary on it.
In this case too, as on the previous Sundays of Lent, the text of the communio is the synthesis of an episode of the Gospels and as such is the fruit of the skillful combination of words, passages, phrases that are able to present in a concise manner the meaning of an account, a parable, a teaching.
The communio "Videns Dominus" narrates the miracle - or more precisely the "sign" - of the resurrection of Lazarus, which the current liturgy places on the fifth Sunday of Lent in cycle A of the lectionary.
The text of the antiphon draws upon five verses of chapter 11 of the Gospel of John, taking from them a few phrases that not only effectively summarize the unfolding of the event but are also accompanied by a deft and precise procedure of centonization. The result is a crescendo of expressive intensity ("ascending climax") which, on the basis of the ordinary narration, gradually reaches its peak in the command of Christ proclaimed in a loud voice ("Lazare, veni foras"; Lazarus, come out) and then descends just as gradually again ("descending climax" or "anticlimax") after the miracle has been performed.
The piece unfolds in an almost entirely syllabic style and deserves attention above all because of the testimony that is offered to it - at least in the first half of the antiphon - by the notation of Laon, reproduced above the square notes of the Vatican notation.
If the underlying Sangallian notation leaves as always to the "virga" ( / ) and to the "tractulus" ( - ) the indication of the acute and grave accents of the syllabic pieces, the codex of Laon instead makes a clear distinction between the first and second semiphrase. A distinction that is helpful in this context because it pertains to the character of the narration.
Laon codex 239 - the most illustrious member of the Metz codex family, written in the tenth century - uses a specific script, called "uncinus," which we encounter regularly in this piece beginning with the "lacrimatus" of the second semiphrase.
This basic notational cell varies its dimensions in relation to the musical value it is intended to represent: from the ordinary syllabic value - translated by the "uncinus" of normal dimensions - to an indication of special rhythmic fluidity through the reduction of the mark to a simple point.
The logic of the Metz codices, foreign to those of Saint Gall, appears here in all its singularity and demonstrates the different pace of the recitative in the first two semiphrases.
The weeping of the sisters of Lazarus is marked by the Laon codex with a succession of points, interrupted only by an "uncinus" with the "t" of "tenete" over the accent of "fléntes." This emphasis finds correspondence in the underlying notation of Saint Gall in the "virga" endowed with an "episema" (the dash added to the top of the "virga" itself, which amplifies its value) and is the only expressive point in the rapid flow of the first semiphrase.
What is emphasized next is the weeping ("flentes") of the sisters of Lazarus, but this is a subdued weeping, immediately overshadowed in importance by the weeping of Christ himself, who, as the text of John puts it in an expression unique in all the Gospel, "burst into tears" ("lacrimatus est."). For this reason, this second semiphrase is written not in simple points anymore, but with a succession of uncini, with their full value, which are maintained until the expressive culmination reached at the powerful command of Christ: "Lazarus, come out."
If the notation of Laon has brought to light the differences of rhythm - and therefore of meaning - found in the first part of the antiphon, it is now the script of Saint Gall, below the staff of the Vatican notation, that plays its best cards in this powerful central passage.
We find in fact an eloquent virga with episema, of extended duration, over the accent of "Làzare," but we find above all two consecutive virgae with episema over both syllables of "foras," a particularly strong emphasis of this passage.
But according to the logic of Einsiedeln 121- the most illustrious witness of the Sangallian school of notation - there is much more. This valuable codex, in its boundless repertoire of the Mass, uses the same procedure (two consecutive virgae with episema over monosonic syllables) in only one other case: the communio "Oportet te," also Lenten and with its text taken from the Gospels.
This brief antiphon recounts the conclusion of the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:32) where the father addresses the older son: "Frater tuus mortuus fuerat et revixit" (your brother was dead and has come back to life). It is precisely on this last verb ("revixit") that we find the two consecutive virgae with episema. The expressive power of this Sangallian indication finds full meaning and profound significance in the fact that, in the whole repertoire, this codex reserves such special treatment for these two cases alone. They are linked by the fact that they speak of instances of resurrection. Their true expressive power, moreover, is fully revealed only in the comprehension of their calling out to one another.
The expressive culmination of the communio "Videns Dominus" coincides with the melodic apex of the piece, from which the modal construction gradually descends until it reaches, with ordinary rhythm and syllabic treatment, the important final cadence.
The closing of the antiphon insists on an aspect of great importance, which in the Gospel text acts as a premise for the miraculous sign: Lazarus was "quatriduanus mortuus," dead for four days. Gregorian monody concentrates its attention on these two final words. The weight of the two descending notes ("clivis") on the accent of "quatriduànus" is amplified. And the final cadence on "mortuus" is enriched with notes in a way that is entirely special in relation to the syllabic style maintained until that point.
Finally, a detail concerning the verse of the psalm that accompanies the antiphon must be pointed out. The ancient manuscripts surprise us with a touching decision: to the weeping of the sisters of Lazarus and the weeping of the Lord is added our own weeping ("ploremus ante eum," let us weep before him) on this fifth Sunday of Lent that was once called the "first Sunday of the Passion."
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The pieces of Gregorian chant presented and offered for listening here are part of a cycle of performances recorded for www.chiesa by the "Cantori Gregoriani" directed by Fulvio Rampi.
It is a cycle of seven installments, one per week, with the proper chants of the five Sundays of Lent, Palm Sunday, and Easter Sunday.
A previous cycle of installments covered the liturgical period from the first Sunday of Advent to Epiphany.
All of the pieces of Gregorian chant performed for www.chiesa by Maestro Fulvio Rampi and his choir can be listened to again at any time and are found on this webpage:
> Masterpieces of Gregorian Chant__________
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
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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. 124.
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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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4.4.2014
