Saturday, April 18, 2015

The Second Alleluia for the 3rd Sunday in Easter: Oportebat Pati Christum ("It behoved Christ to suffer")

Here's this chant, beautifully sung by the Benedictine Nuns of Notre-Dame de l'Annonciation, Le Barroux:




Here's the full chant score:



Here's a literal-ish translation of this text:
It was necessary for Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead, and so to enter into his glory.

This Latin Vulgate/English translation of Luke 24:26 and Luke 24:46 shows how this text is a mashup of two different verses:
2426Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and so, to enter into his glory?nonne haec oportuit pati Christum et ita intrare in gloriam suam

2446And he said to them: Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise again from the dead, the third day:et dixit eis quoniam sic scriptum est et sic oportebat Christum pati et resurgere a mortuis die tertia

And this section of Luke, which follows on from the Year A reading for this Sunday describing the supper at Emmaus, is in fact read on this day; the action here, though, takes place back in Jerusalem:
Luke 24:36b-48

Jesus himself stood among the disciples and their companions and said to them, "Peace be with you." They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, "Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.

Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you-- that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things."


The collect for today is this one, also read on Wednesday of Easter Week:
O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Hatchett's Commentary says, about the collect, that:
This is a revised version of the collect for the Monday in Easter Week of the 1928 Book, composed by the Rev. Dr. John W. Suter, St.  It is associated with the story of our Lord's appearance to the disciples at Emmaus after the resurrection , when He made Himself known "in the breaking of bread" (Lk 24:35).  The original form of the result clause read, "The we may behold thee in all thy works."  This collect is also appointed for the third Sunday of Easter.

The chant propers for the Easter season seem to have been shifted around quite a bit from the old, Tridentine, version.  Some of these chants were once used for the "Third Sunday after Easter," which I think means that the numbering system was different then as well.  I'll have to take a closer look at that at some point.

Here are a couple of images from a very interesting old chant book housed, I believe, in the Bamberg State Library in Germany.  This chant begins at the bottom of the first page here and continues at the top of the second:




The book itself is quite unusual!  Here's a side-view image of its binding, followed by - if I'm not mistaken - images of its front and back covers.





It looks to me like the book's covers are made of wood, and those are carved images.

I don't read German very well, so can't really follow what's being said there; I don't know what this book actually is - but I can make some guesses.   This page, at the (French) gregorien.info site, links to it and refers to it as "Bamberg, D-BAa lit. 7, Cantatorium de Seeon," which I think probably refers to "Kloster-Seeon," a one-time Benedictine monastery "in the municipality of Seeon-Seebruck in the rural district of Traunstein in Bavaria, Germany."


And, according to this page, "a ‘cantatorium’ is a book that contains the gradual and alleluia chants that a soloist would perform during the Mass."

More, I cannot tell you at this moment; if I do find out something else, I'll come back and post it, as always.

Here are all the chants for this Sunday's mass, from ChristusRex.org, and sung by the Sao Paolo
Benedictines:a
Hebdomada tertia paschæ
Dominica
Introitus: Ps. 65, 1.2.3 Iubilate Deo (2m58.9s - 2798 kb) score
Alleluia: Lc. 24, 35 Cognoverunt discipuli (2m40.0s - 2504 kb) score
Alleluia: Lc. 24, 32 Oportebat (3m20.3s - 3132 kb) score
Offertorium: Ps. 145, 2 Lauda, anima mea (1m33.8s - 1468 kb) score
Communio:
(anno A) Lc. 24, 34 Surrexit Dominus (44.8s - 702 kb) score
                   (anno B)Ps. 95, 2 Cantate Domino (1m22.5s - 1292 kb) score
                   (anno C) Io. 21, 15.17 Simon Ioannis (1m23.7s - 1310 kb)

Here are posts for the some of the chants for this day on Chantblog:

No comments:

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...