Masterpieces of Gregorian Chant / The gradual of the Passion
It is sung on Palm Sunday and on Good Friday. Here in a brand-new performance presented to us by the "Cantori Gregoriani" and their Maestro
by Fulvio Rampi
TRANSLATION
For our sake Christ made himself obedient to death, to death on a cross.
Because of this God exalted him
and gave him the name that is above every name.
For our sake Christ made himself...
(Philippians 2:8-9)
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The gradual "Christus factus est" is one of the best-known pieces of the Gregorian repertoire. Although it is by no means a popular piece (it is composed in a decidedly florid style and because of this the responsorial is assigned to the schola and the verse to the soloist), its notoriety stems above all from the famous Pauline text to which it refers and from its liturgical placement within Holy Week.
In this case as well, nonetheless, as for various other Gregorian chants of the Lenten repertoire one can observe a variation of placement over time. Until the 1974 edition of the "Graduale Romanum," to which we refer today, this piece constituted the gradual (the chant following the first reading) of the "Missa in Coena Domini" of Holy Thursday.
Its use was also extended to the liturgy of the Divine Office for the whole sacred Triduum, with a particular style of performance: on Holy Thursday only the first phrase was sung (“Christus… usque ad mortem”), on Friday the second phrase was added, completing the responsorial part (“mortem autem crucis”) and on Saturday the whole piece was performed with the verse “Propter quod…”.
The 1974 "Graduale Romanum" - the fruit of the last liturgical reform - assigned this piece to a new double placement: we find it in fact both in the Mass of Palm Sunday and in the liturgical action of Holy Saturday. In both cases it is not found after the first reading (which is followed by a tractus) but after the second reading: an anomalous placement, if for no other reason than that a gradual has ended up replacing the usual presence of a tractus before the Gospel reading. Before the 1974 "Graduale Romanum" the chants between the readings on Palm Sunday were, in order, the gradual "Tenuisti" and the tractus "Deus, Deus meus"; while on Good Friday, exceptionally, there were two tractus without any gradual (“Domine audivi” and “Eripe me”).
The removal of the gradual "Christus factus est" from its original place on Holy Thursday to Palm Sunday, in addition to creating the aforementioned anomaly, dampened the powerful expressive value that emerges precisely from the ancient arrangement of the chants for the "Missa in Coena Domini."
It was in fact in this precise context that our gradual acted as the "title" of the Easter Triduum. The same Thursday Mass, selected as the liturgical setting most suited to this somewhat special gradual, also sees the presence in the ancient codices of an offertory that is just as special: "Dextera Domini." The text of this piece is taken from Psalm 117: "Dextera Domini fecit virtutem… Non moriar, sed vivam et narrabo opera Domini" (The right hand of the Lord has worked wonders . . . I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the works of the Lord). The proclamation of this text of praise at the beginning of the Easter Triduum - accompanied by the musical richness that Gregorian chant adds to it by the armful - represents a strong provocation, partly mitigated by the removal of this piece, as takes place in the "Graduale Romanum" of 1974, to the Easter Vigil. Singing the same text at the beginning or at the conclusion of the great Triduum does not have the same symbolic value.
But let us return to our gradual and look at its salient characteristics.
First of all the text. This is the famous Pauline hymn contained in the letter to the Philippians, with an addition of particular importance in the first phrase: the biblical text, in fact, does not include the specification "pro nobis" (for us), which in this specific context emerges as a decisive novelty in the musical construction of the responsorial part.
With regard to the musical construction, we find ourselves before a gradual in the fifth mode. In the great chapter of Gregorian aesthetics, this clear classification already defines the stylistic-formal nature of the piece in question: this is in fact a melody-centonization, a mosaic composition made up of the juxtaposition (centonization, in fact) of musical units. The resemblance among the numerous graduals of the fifth mode, disseminated in the repertoire of the Mass, stems precisely from this treasury of formulas variously assembled from different texts but connected by a common framework of expression.
In our case, moreover, the main reference is to another gradual in the fifth mode, which reads as follows in its responsorial part: "Ecce sacerdos magnus, qui in diebus suis placuit Deo": (Behold, a great priest who in his days was pleasing to God). It is a text of the book of Sirach, which the ancient Gregorian codices place at the conclusion of the solar year on the day of Saint Sylvester. The Christological interpretation of this that Gregorian chant offers is nonetheless evident: Christ is the great priest, he who for our sake made himself obedient to death on the cross. The two graduals "Christus" and "Ecce sacerdos" are completely identical and illuminate each other in a reciprocal acoustical exegesis: in this case, rather than melody-centonization one could speak of melody-type, or a formulaic melody that embraces the whole composition.
The melodic line of the gradual "Christus factus est" requires a few brief observations.
In the first passage, the recitative with the reiteration of the note Fa (the representative tone of the modality of the piece) is interrupted by a prominent ornamentation of notes in correspondence with "pro nobis." Before driving toward the upper register, the melody lingers precisely over this addition to the Pauline text and at the same time extends the values of the individual sounds. The disproportion between the initial recitative and this solemn melodic-rhythmic amplification is evident and manifests the clear intention of assigning an expressive weight of particular significance to this first cadence. It is "for us" that Christ made himself obedient: this is the concept that Gregorian chant, in this week that is so central to the journey of the liturgical year, wants to highlight by having recourse to its most efficacious compositional techniques.
Moreover, if we return to considering the original destination of this gradual, how can we not intimately associate this "pro nobis" with the Eucharistic liturgy of Holy Thursday? Is it not perhaps in the context of the last supper - which the "Missa in Coena Domini" commemorates in a particular way - that Christ offers his body and blood "for us"?
After a peremptory ascent in the central part of the "responsum" (entrusted to the schola), the melodic arc again touches the lower regions in correspondence with the last word: "crucis." The importance of this substantive, seen in context, appears to be taken for granted and is rendered musically by the prolonged melisma on the final syllable.
There is also space, finally, for a few melodic illustrations of the text: again on this last syllable, in fact, the lowest note (Do) of the whole piece is reached, signifying the extreme abasement of Christ on the cross.
With the same logic and in the opposite direction, the breathtaking verse for soloist immediately afterward touches the highest register. After narrating, in the responsorial part, the "kénosis" of Christ, the Gregorian chant proclaims his exaltation in the verse and celebrates his "name that is above every other name."
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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. 148.
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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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11.4.2014
