The Other Chants of the Mass of St Philip Neri

Having in my last post identified the musical source for the chant setting of the Offertory for the feast of St Philip Neri, I thought next to mention the melodic origins of the rest of the Proper of his Mass. 

To begin with, the Introit, Caritas Dei, is self-evidently taken from the Mass of Whit Saturday, omitting the first, internal alleluia (and the last two, except in Eastertide), raising the first note of per by a tone and replacing the Whit Saturday melody for the last word, nobis, with that of the last two syllables of the first (itself identical with the corresponding part of the last) Whit Saturday alleluia. 

Likewise, the Gradual Venite is taken without change from the Mass of the 7th Sunday after Pentecost.

The Alleluia and verse De excelso is set to the same melody as the first Eastertide Alleluia and verse for the feast of St Irenaeus (28th June), but it is unclear to me as to which is the original.

I have not yet found a source for the music of the second Eastertide Alleluia and its verse Concaluit.

Most interestingly, the Communion Cor meum is set to a very prominent chant – that of the Communion Viderunt of the Mass of Christmas Day. Doubtlessly this conveys something of the joy whereby the heart and flesh of such a saint do ever exult in the living God.

Suscepimus

The Lutherans still name Sundays by their Introits – so Catholics definitely should!

According to my 1956 Dominican Diurnal, this Sunday is the 6th after the Octave of the Trinity; or, according to my Roman Missal, the 8th after Pentecost.

Suscepimus, Deus, misericordiam tuam...: a marvellous Introit (Ps 47:10-11,2), also used at Candlemas: "We have received, O God, Thy mercy, in the midst of Thy temple..." – how apposite especially for the feast of the Presentation, the Hypapante, the Coming of the Lord into His Temple.  But how true that we should sing in joyful thanks of this truth, that, gathering in the Christian temple that is Holy Church instantiated, we therein receive God's plenteous and rich mercy, even Mercy in Person, Jesus Christ.

The psalm-verse of the Introit, the first verse of Psalm 47, corroborates and reinforces this point: "Great is the Lord, and exceedingly to be praised, in the city of our God, on His holy mountain."  God's city is His Church, militant here on earth, but moreso it is the true Jerusalem that is above, the Church of the firstborn that is in heaven, the Church triumphant, of which we are members in potency – God grant that we attain to our full stature in Christ, and prove worthy to inherit eternal life as true members of His Son's Body made perfect in Him by grace.

The full Introit is a magnificent outburst of thankful confession and praise:

(We have received, O God, Thy mercy in the midst of Thy temple: according to Thy name, O God, so also is Thy praise unto the ends of the earth: Thy right hand is full of justice.

(Ps.  Great is the Lord, and exceedingly to be praised: in the city of our God, on His holy mountain.

(Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost: As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.

(We have received...)

God's right hand, or rather, the Father's Right Hand Incarnate, Jesus Christ, indeed is full of justice, righteousness overflowing to justify sinners, for whom He deigned to die and rise again "for our justification".  God's Name is Holy – and the Name of God the Son, Jesus, means indeed "God is salvation".  Right well the praise of the Lord extends to all the utmost ends of the earth!

Beata Dei Genetrix

Each morning at Lauds of the Blessed Virgin, the Benedictus antiphon is as follows:

Beata Dei Genitrix Maria, Virgo perpetua, templum Domini, sacrarium Spiritus Sancti:

sola sine exemplo placuisti Domino nostro Jesu Christo:

ora pro populo, interveni pro clero, intercede pro devoto femineo sexu.

(Blessed Mother of God Mary, ever a Virgin, temple of the Lord, shrine of the Holy Ghost:

alone without peer thou didst please our Lord Jesus Christ:

pray for the people, intervene for the clergy, intercede for consecrated women.)

Interestingly, this Marian anthem is composed of three parts - the first is a series of Our Lady's titles; the second, a slightly expanded quotation from Sedulius (Carmen paschale, II, 69 - Sola sine exemplo placuisti femina Christo); the third, part of the prayer of Fulbert of Chartres long attributed to St Augustine (Serm. IX - ora pro populo; interveni pro clero; intercede pro devoto femineo sexu).

Sedulius also gives us the Introit for Our Lady, Salve sancta Parens (at which words the Carthusians genuflect in memory of the Incarnation): his verses were Salve, sancta parens, enixa puerpera regem, / Qui caelum terramque tenet per saecula... (Carmen paschale, II, 63f), but these the Church has expanded upon by changing the last words to regit in saecula saeculorum.

Salve, sancta parens,

enixa puerpera Regem,

qui caelum, terramque regit

in saecula saeculorum.

(Hail, holy Parent,

a woman in labour who didst bring forth the King,

Who ruleth heaven and earth

for ever and ever.)

From his abecedarian hymn A solis ortus cardine come some wonderful Christmas and Epiphany hymns, though his full text extends from the Infancy to the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. From the Carmen comes also the following lines (II, 66-68):

...quæ ventre beato
Gaudia matris habens cum virginitatis honore
Nec primam similem visa es nec habere sequentem:

(... by whose blessed womb

having the joys of a mother with the honour of virginity:

neither was one like seen before thee nor shall there be another)

These appear reused in various places in the Liturgy, such as in this antiphon sung before Christmas in some rites:

O Virgo virginum, quomodo fiet istud?

Quia nec primam similem visa es nec habere sequentem.

Filiæ Jerusalem, quid me admiramini?

Divinum est mysterium hoc quod cernitis.

(O Virgin of Virgins, how shall this be?

For neither before thee was any like thee, nor shall there be after.

Daughters of Jerusalem, why marvel ye at me?

The thing which ye behold is a divine mystery.)

As Gambero notes, Sedulius offers a synthesis and summary of all Mariology in a short passage of his Carmen (II, 63-69), parts of which have already been quoted above, parts taken up into the official Liturgy of Christ's Church:

Hail, O holy mother; you gave birth to the King

Who governs heaven and earth forever, whose

Divinity and dominion embrace everything in one eternal realm

And endure without end. In your blessed womb

You hold a mother's joy, yet you enjoy the honour of virginity.

No woman like you was seen before, nor did one appear after;

You alone, without comparison, were the woman who pleased Christ.

May the Blessed Virgin intercede for us with her Son, Who refuses nothing to His Mother in whom He is well-pleased.

Goodbye Alleluia

What a sombre start to Septuagesima: death and destruction.

Since Adam's fall, sin has sundered us from God, and misery has been man's lot in this dark world: the original state of harmony and justice being broken, nature is armed against us, as the Magnificat antiphon at 1st Vespers puts before us:

Dixit Dominus ad Adam: De ligno quod est in medio paradisi, ne comedas: in qua hora comederis, morte morieris.

The Lord said to Adam: Of the tree that is in the midst of paradise, thou shalt not eat: in what hour thou shalt have eaten (of it), by death shalt thou die.

(Genesis ii, 17 & cf. 9)

How sadly appropriate then to sing at Mass to-morrow:

Circumdederunt me gemitus mortis, dolores inferni circumdederunt me: et in tribulatione mea invocavi Dominum, et exaudivit de templo sancto suo vocem meam.

(They have surrounded me the sorrows of death, the dolours of hell surrounded me: and in my tribulation I called upon the Lord, and He heard from His holy temple my voice.)

– Introit antiphon (Ps 17:5-7), Septuagesima Sunday.

Preces populi tui, quæsumus, Domine, clementer exaudi: ut, qui juste pro peccatis nostris affligimur, pro tui nominis gloria misericorditer liberemur.  Per...

O Lord, we beseech thee favourably to hear the prayers of thy people: that we, who are justly punished for our offences, may be mercifully delivered by thy goodness, for the glory of thy Name; through Jesus Christ our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.  Amen. *

– Collect, Septuagesima Sunday 

(English from the B.C.P.)

[* The words "by thy goodness" are not in the Latin, but are implied; and the long ending is a little idiosyncratic, as the Latin would be better rendered "through Our Lord Jesus Christ thy Son, who with thee liveth and reigneth in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end."]

Adjutor in opportunitatibus, in tribulatione: sperent in te, qui noverunt te: quoniam non derelinquis quærentes te, Domine.

(A helper in due time in tribulation: let them hope in Thee, who know Thee: for Thou dost not forsake them that seek thee, Lord.)

– Response of the Gradual (Ps 9:10-11), Septuagesima Sunday

De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine: Domine, exaudi vocem meam.  V/.  Fiant aures tuæ intendentes in orationem servi tui.  V/.  Si iniquitates observaveris, Domine: Domine, quis sustinebit?  V/.  Quia apud te propitiatio est, et propter legem tuam sustinui te, Domine.

Out of the depths I have cried to Thee, Lord: Lord, hear my voice.  V/.  Let Thine ears be attentive to the prayer of Thy servant.  V/.  If Thou, Lord, wilt mark iniquities: Lord, who shall abide it?  V/.  For with Thee there is merciful forgiveness, and by reason of Thy law I have waited for Thee, Lord.)

– Tract (Ps 129:1-4), Septuagesima Sunday.

Advent Sunday

To thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul.  In thee, O my God, I put my trust; let me not be ashamed.  Neither let my enemies laugh at me: for none of them that wait on thee shall be confounded. Ps. Show, O Lord, thy ways to me, and teach me thy paths. Glory be...  As it was...  To thee... (Ps 24:1-3, 4a)

Our Advent Introit expresses emotions of both hope and fear, just as we waver between hope and fear - will God save us, will we be saved?

I rather like the Anglican collect for Advent, now available for Catholic use, which so well reflects the apocalyptic sense of this season, and gives us a digested summation of to-day's Epistle (Rom. xiii, 11-14a) and Gospel (St Luke xxi, 25-33):

Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light (cf. Rom. xiii, 12), now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty (cf. St Luke xxi, 27) to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, [one God,] now and [for] ever.   Amen.

The three words in square brackets are added in the Catholic Church's Anglican Use liturgy, according to The Book of Divine Worship.