E14 • Repertoire portrait: Introit of Easter Mass of the Day

This is one of the most beautiful conceptual episodes in the series, because it treats the Easter liturgy like several cameras turned toward one mystery. Resurrexi (mode 4) gives the interior face of Easter, Vesperi autem sabbati (mode 8) its public proclamation, and Victimæ Paschali Laudes (mode 1) its dramatic catechesis. We may expect Easter to begin in dazzling brightness, but this episode shows that Gregorian chant often chooses a subtler path. The introit remains soft, recitative-like, and contemplative, even on the Church’s greatest feast. What emerges is a richly layered theology of Resurrection in sound.

Content

• The Easter introit is Resurrexi (mode 4). The melody is soft, interior, and contemplative.
• Mode 4 gives the chant its distinctive inward light: Easter is not reduced to outward brilliance.
• Other chants provide proclamation and dramatic catechesis.
• Resurrexi sounds like an intimate dialogue of the risen Christ with the Father, in the peace and quiet of eternity.
• The episode shows several musical approaches to one mystery.
  
  

Source song

• The community of Gricigliano from the Saint Philip Neri Seminary, in the Church of the Saints Michael and Cajetan, in Florence, Italy, on 27 March 2016. Private recording.

Sponsors

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠National Lottery Heritage Fund⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: 
• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Global Sound Movement⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠University of Lancashire⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

External Links

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Watch on YouTube ⁠⁠⁠⁠@Beyond_the_Spire⁠⁠⁠⁠
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More about St Walburge’s Shrine

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome to Beyond the Spire, a podcast of the Save Our Secretance Project here in Preston at the Catholic Shrine of St. Walbert, supported by the National Lottery. In each episode, we go beyond what you see from the street. We explore the story and the sound of Gregory and chant the church's own voice, so that this treasure of faith and culture is not just preserved but lived and loved again. I am Canon Bernard. Whether you are a musician, a member of a parish choir, or simply someone curious about the Catholic faith heritage, you came to the right place. Let's begin. In this episode, we will listen to Resurrexi, the intrigue, the first piece of the mass of Easter, the main feast of the liturgical calendar. As resurrection should be something right in our minds, the church here chooses to have a very soft and interior song to introduce the mass of the major feast. Resurrects, this intro, is in mode four, and it is like waking up inside the resurrection itself. The melody is quiet, interior, and contemplative. It stands between the brighter proclamation of the first antiphon of the night before Vesperi Autem Sabati in mode eight perfectorus. It stands between the brighter proclamation of the last antiphon of the night before Vespertem Sabati, and then the sequence Victime Pascal Laudes. The first one is in the mode eight, which is perfectus, really bright, really explosive explanation public from far, while Victim Pascal Laudis is in mode one, more grave, more grandi. Mode four gives resurrection a soft inward light, more like a murmured secret than a public burst word whispered by Christ who awakes between the stones of the tomb. The first phrase on resurrecti and et arductecum sum unfolds as an almost recitative line, gently developed intonation, a small surge of joy, then a tender resting on sum before a very delicate half finished cadence on the alleluia that is typical of mode four. The second phrase posuisti superme manum tuamb is built on long, repeated note, especially on posuisti, suggesting at once the firm, steady hand of the father and the immobile contemplation of the son. Then the last phrase Miabilis facta esciatua suddenly opens into a broader, more ample movement, rising through full intervals borrowed from the perfect sonority of mode eight, and then relaxing into three allelujas that gently swing and fade back into quiet silence. Where mode eight tends to shape strong architectural lines, perfect intervals, clear cadensis. Resurrects absorbs that strength into only one moment of the ashent on mirabilis factua and then immediately returns to the quieter mode for colour. But it's a reminder of what we said just the night before with Vespertem Sabati, this exterior proclamation of the resurrection of Christ, the more public declamation of the gospel. So musically, Vesperatem Sabati sounds like the church announcing the resurrection to the world. Why resurrection sounds more like Christ speaking to the Father in the intimacy behind that proclamation? Then comes the Victime Pascal Laudis in mode one. It has a narrative, a dramatic profile, dialogues, equation answer, and sharper melodic gestures to carry the story and its contrasts to death versus life, victim versus victor. Mode one's gravitas and more angular motion give the sequence a sense of movement and tension. It is not very often viewed on a mode one piece. Here the church is telling a mystery aloud, but it is still a mystery. It can't be completely unveiled. In contrast, the introid resurrection keeps almost no drama. The onumidation is discreet, the line is smooth and largely stepwise, and even the allelujahs are marked gently so that the whole piece remains in peaceful, contemplative joy, but not in rhetorical contrast that comes just afterwards. Let us, as a conclusion, recap how the three melodies work together. Resurrection in mode four is an interior dialogue with Christ speaking to his father. Resurrection in mode four is an interior dialogue with the reason Christ is speaking to his father. And it is expressed with the song coming after the antiphon Domine probastime et cognovistime Tu Cogniovistionemeam at Resurrection Meam. Is a proclamation, an objective proclamation. The first one just after the first alleluia, following forty days of silence during Lent. The church is chanting the gospel fact in full luminous line. And then the Vicitime Bascalilaudes is a more dramatic catechis in mode one concrete or engrave absurd. But here the mystery is more articulated, almost like a conversational melody. These correlations show us how the church chooses angles on the same mystery and explore the richness of Easter.