Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Pánis, quem égo dédero

This is the Communion song for the 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time - or, for Proper 14, the 10th Sunday after Pentecost, August 9th (even in the RCL!):
Pánis, quem égo dédero,
cáro méa est pro saéculi víta.


The bread that I shall give
Is my flesh, for the life of the world.


Here's the mp3 from the Benedictines of Brazil; here's the chant score:





The Offertory is In te speravi, from Psalm 31:14-15:
14 But I trusted in thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my God.

15 My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.


Here's the mp3; here's the score:



7 comments:

Matt Carver (Matthaeus Glyptes) said...

This Panis Quem melody reminds me of the Verba parts (Hoc est corpus meum, etc.) in Discubuit Iesus (the Cistercian communio at vespers). Do you know if that has an English version?

bls said...

Well, you could always fit the English words to the above chant score, if you wanted....

Matt Carver (Matthaeus Glyptes) said...

Is there a method to doing that?

bls said...

Well, I don't know what you're thinking of here, exactly, but I would first try matching up the English words exactly with the Latin, syllable-by-syllable.

If it's an exact match in terms of number of syllables, you can simply sing the English the same way the Latin is sung. Here, there are 19 syllables in Latin and only 15 in English, so you'll have to spread a few of the words out over some neume-groups. It's really up to you how to do this; you should just go by how it sounds best, keeping in mind which are the important words (because those need to be emphasized).

You can do anything you want, really.

Matt Carver (Matthaeus Glyptes) said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Matt Carver (Matthaeus Glyptes) said...

Taking a second look, the scores are not quite the same, though there is a descending melisma :D. Here are my transcriptions of the Latin, and my English version (the Latin was a patchwork of the Vulgate, so I emulated this using the KJV). I wonder if you might offer some comments / corrections. It would be useful to know the responsory formula, so that I could add or remove notes correctly. This is apparently a vespers responsory (used as a communio) from the Cistercians.

LATIN:
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?7611a9db2a.png

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?84511d97de.png

ENGLISH:
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?7611a9db2a.png

bls said...

Hi Matt -

I'm sorry I haven't gotten back yet - I've been really very busy.

I will look at your scores, but should let you know I'm not any kind of expert in what you're asking, so really it will just be my own opinion I'll give you. (You might try the "Recovering Choir Director" link at right, if you're looking for professional advice; he's the real thing, and I'm just an amateur.)

It's really an art, though, and not a science - particularly when you're moving from Latin to English, which are two completely different kinds of language. It's always a problem, for everybody, actually....

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