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Heb. V. Quad: Sab.

The following piece may be sung in place of the normal gradual for the Saturday prior to Palm Sunday. It's a rather difficult piece for me for a number of reasons. In the first place, I get the impression that it's written for a resonant bass voice. Second, it's pretty long. Third, the neumes are a bit strange in places.

As to that last point, it seems as though the Laon neumes correspond better to the square notation, whereas the St. Gall version is elliptical in some places. I was particularly confused on the interpretations around the phrase "Quid facimus", where it seemed to make most sense to leave out a note. Also, I wasn't quite sure exactly how I wanted to pace "gentem"; I think I figured out something that worked on the second time through, though. The St. Gall neumes generally appear to indicate a slower approach to several of the melismata, although the Laon markings are nonetheless rife with "tenete" letters. In any case, apart from the neumes the sense of the text suggests a slow and brooding tone.

H. Quarta Quadragesimae: Sabbato

"Circumdederunt Me" is the Introit for Saturday evening leading into the 5th Sunday of Lent. Apart from containing a number of my favorite melodic figures, the first thing that struck me about this piece is its wonderful word painting. In light of that, I probably could have lingered a bit longer on the initial syllable of "gemitus" all the more to contrast with the end of "circumdederunt", thereby throwing into higher relief the recurring contrast between tight, tense phrases and invocatory interval jumps. "dolores inferni" and "tribulatione mea" nicely illustrate the former by intermittantly brushing up against or touching down upon melodic resolution at C and F, respectively. Likewise, the swift leaps on "invocavi Dominum" set up the prominence of the reciting tone for the rest of the piece.

As for the rhythmic markings et al., this piece is fairly neumed up. I find it curious that 'm' appears so often, as ifto say "It's an expressive piece, but don't take it too far". That said, I probably could have drawn out the main idea "et exaudivit de templo" a bit more in accordance with the 'a' markings in both sets of neumes.

Hebdomada Prima Quadradesimae

The music for this blog comes from the Graduale Triplex. Unless otherwise noted, I will be following the red Saint-Gall neumes according to the principles outlined by Dom Cardine in Gregorian Semiology.

For the first week of Lent, I currently have the Offertorium and the Communio. I hope to rerecord these tracks at some point in order to remove the breaths before "veritas".

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