Gregorian Chant For Good Friday

Description

In Passione et Morte DominiGregorian Chant from the Liturgy for Good FridayDomine, audivi auditum tuum (tractus)(Lord, I heard Thy voice)Christus factus est (responsorium graduale)(Christ was made obedient unto death)Evangelium passionis et mortis Domini(Gospel of the Passion and Death of the Lord)Ecce lignum crucis (antiphon)(Behold, the wood of the Cross)Popule meus, quid feci tibi? (improperia)(My people, w hat have I done to you?)Crux fidelis (hymnus)(Faithful Cross)At the heart of the celebration of the liturgical year, the Easter of Christand of the Church, Good Friday occupies a central position. Before proclaimingthe glorious resurrection of Jesus, the Church identifies herself in her owndestiny of death, involving herself totally in the experience of the Cross.The liturgy of Good Friday is unlike that of other days. It has in commonwith the celebration of the Vigil of Easter a special and exceptional dimension.In the Vigil the resurrection of Christ is celebrated: Good Friday opens awindow on the principal aspect of the Easter mystery. This is to be understoodby the people of God not so much on a rational plane, which always risksremaining detached and cold, as from an outside observer, as through a total andpersonal participation in every way, from reason to imagination, from deepfeeling to bodily gesture. This didactic preoccupation of the Church is shown inthe many and various ritual elements that mark the action of the liturgy.From the pre-Carolingian period, the afternoon celebration of Good Fridaycontained various elements that we find fundamentally unchanged still in themodern liturgy, the Liturgy of the Word, that ends with the solemn chant of theuniversal prayer, the Adoration of the Cross, the Communion.The first three tracks of the present recording belong to the Liturgy of theWord. The tract Domine, audivi, illustrates the ancient practice ofdirect psalmody, consisting of the singing of psalm verses without the additionof other elements, such as antiphons. The mode of re (Mode I) reveals thederivation of this melody as from a Frankish source, when the melody iselaborated and enriched by the ornamentation proper to the tract.The second chant is the responsorium graduale Christus factus est,which comes between the scriptural texts. Notwithstanding the melodic andmelismatic development (notably the long vocalisation that underlines thecentral words of the verse, exaltavit illum, raised Him up), this chantbetrays its origin as a psalm formula. Extreme care has been taken to suit themusic to the text, something evident in all the nuances, with strong contrastsof expression (in addition to that already mentioned, one may draw attention tothe treatment of the words mortem autem crucis, the death of the Cross).This gradual is not reserved solely or the Good Friday liturgy but is also sungat Mass on Palm Sunday and in many churches it is also sung after the Office ofTenebrae on the last three days of Holy Week, from Maundy Thursday to