Jump to content

Tenebrae Responsories (Victoria)

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by ColonelHenry (talk | contribs) at 15:15, 24 March 2014 (→Order). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

DYK

Markup
Text

FINAL

DRAFT

Outline

  • LEDE
  • Composition history and background
    • de Victoria's composition of the work/style of compositions/type of compositions/career, "Spanish Palestrina"
    • Role in Counter-Reformation music/late Renaissance
    • Holy Week observances and nature of works for those days
  • Order of works
    • Works for Palm Sunday
    • for Maundy Thursday
    • for Good Friday
    • for Holy Saturday
  • Analysis of works
    • Lamentations (9)
    • Tenebrae Responsories (18)
    • Passions
    • Antiphons, motets, hymns
  • Notable performances and recordings

LEDE

The Officium Hebdomanae Sanctae (Office for Holy Week) is a set of thirty-seven sacred choral compositions by late Renaissance Spanish composer Tomás Luis de Victoria for performance during liturgical services on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday during the Roman Catholic observances of Holy Week. Published in Rome in 1585...


  • “Victoria's massive publication of 1585, the OfficiumHebdomadae Sanctae, was never intended as a self-contained 'work': alongside the famous Tenebrae settings, it includes Lamentations for the three holy days, the Improperia ('Reproaches'), and music for Palm Sunday and for the St John and St Matthew Passions.
  • Victoria's use of a handful of simple recurring motifs (usually associated with specific words or phrases) that he would no doubt have expected his listeners to recognise.

Eighteen of the words are Tenebrae Responsories sung during two of the three nocturns services during Matins sung between midnight and early morning.

The Tenebrae Responsories are a set of eighteen motets/choral compositions published in 1585 by Spanish composer Tomás Luis de Victoria (c. 1548–1611) consisting of four-part a capella settings of eighteen sacred/Christian/liturgical/biblical texts for use during liturgical services during the Triduum of Holy Week—Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. The eighteen motets are divided into three sets of six responsories for the second and third Nocturns of Matins

  • image of OHS plus info, in Spanish
  • The Tenebrae are actually a special form of Matins are sung during Holy Week (also called Karmette ). They are sung from midnight to early morning . You start with the invitatory , coupled with an antiphon , followed by a hymn . Then follow three Nocturnes . These consist usually of three psalms , three readings and three Responsorien . This is followed by yet close to the Lauds , the morning prayer . OHS , only certain parts of polyphonic singing. So it was only possible for the Lamentations of Jeremiah , the Tenebrae and Responsorien for another ten parts. Overall, Victoria created 37 works for his project .

Composition history and background

  • Born in Avila in Castile, the same Spanish Counter-Reformation town as the mystic St. Teresa, Victoria spent the central 20 years of his career in Rome, studying for the priesthood at the Jesuit Collegio Germanico and serving the Roman musical establishment. The majority of his music (all on sacred texts) was published during this time. But he vivified the reserved and "classical" style of Willaert and Palestrina's church polyphony with his close attention to the local affect of his texts. Victoria's spirituality, at the same time highly orthodox and deeply passionate, bleeds through the pages of his Holy Week music. The rites for the High feast days between Palm Sunday and Easter, known as the Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae, memorialize the Triumphal Entry of Christ into Jerusalem, and the events of His Passion and death. This same title appeared on one of the last volumes Victoria published in 1585 before returning permanently to Spain; its official dedication not to a worldly prince or pope, but rather directly to the Trinity may reflect its personal importance to him. The lavishly printed folio collection includes two settings of the Passion narratives, three sets of Lamentations of Jeremiah, three sets of Tenebrae Responsories, and miscellaneous other pieces (such as settings of two motets for Palm Sunday and the Vere languores for Good Friday). The Lamentations and the Responsories serve the special "Tenebrae" liturgies of Matins for the Triduum Sacrum -- Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday -- night-time services involving ritual darkening of the church. Fifteen candles -- symbolizing Christ, the 12 Apostles, and the two Marys -- provide the lighting for these services, and all are extinguished one at a time as the liturgy progresses. The deep symbolism in the liturgical structure also prescribes three divisions ("Nocturnes"), each comprising in alternation three Psalms, three Lessons, and three Responsories, thus embedding a series of interlocking Trinitarian symbols in the very fabric of the liturgy. Victoria provides polyphonic music for the second and third Nocturne of each service, following the proper liturgical structure perfectly. The 18 motets, in three groups of [3+3], each follow the "Responsory" form of aBcB, while the third of each group adds a concluding repeat: aBcBaB. The composer calls attention to his structural fidelity by lightening the vocal texture each time in the "c" section (the Versicle). The middle Responsory of each trio, furthermore, invariably uses a higher group of voices. This utter regularity of structure does not, however, constrict the composer's florid imagination. He deploys all his compositional resources to enhance the pathos and dramatic effect of his settings. Different groups of voices may dialogue antiphonally, or otherwise paint the text (as in a cascade at "fons aquae" in "Recessit pater noster"); homophonic textures alternate with imitation (which may pictorialize the lamb "led to the slaughter" in "Eram quasi agnus," or the physical leading of Jesus to his trial in "Iesum tradidit"). And everywhere, Victoria's plangent use of chromatic alterations and surprising harmonic progressions (such as those which dominate the openings of "Tenebrae factae sunt" and "Caligaverunt") enrich the music with aural potency. The music and text of each piece must be considered carefully together; as in the painting of El Greco, the emotional affect of the image seen from a distance depends on the intense emotional energy of each brushstroke.[1]

Order

The Lamentations are the three Lectio I-III of the First Nocturns, the tenebrae responsores IV - IX of the Second and Third Nocturns, distributed over all three days. Lauds are in fact always the same, which are sung on all three days. Then as the Pange Lingua pieces follow on Thursday or the second Passion on Friday .

  • Palm Sunday (Dominica in Ramis Palmarum)
    • Antiphon: Pueri hebraeorum vestimenta
    • Passio Secundum Matthaeum
    • Motette: O Domine Jesu Christe
  • Maundy Thursday (Feria Quinta. In Coena Domini)
    • Primo Nocturno
      • Lectio I: Incipit Lamentatio - Aleph. Quomodo
      • Lectio II: Vau. Et egressus est
      • Lectio III: Jod. Manum suam
    • Secundo Nocturno
      • Responsorium IV: Amicus meus
      • Responsorium V: Judas mercator
      • Responsorium VI: Unus ex discipulis
    • Tertio Nocturno
      • Responsorium VII: Eram quasi
      • Responsorium VIII: Una hora
      • Responsorium IX: Seniores populi
    • Laudes
      • Miserere
      • Benedictus
    • Ad Missam
      • Pange Lingua / Tantum ergo
  • Good Friday Feria Sexta. In Passione Domini
    • Primo Nocturno
      • Lectio I: De Lamentatione - Heth. Cogitavit Dominus
      • Lectio II: Lamed. Matribus suis
      • Lectio III: Aleph. Ego vir
    • Secundo Nocturno
      • Responsorium IV: Tanquam ad latronem
      • Responsorium V: Tenebrae factae sunt
      • Responsorium VI: Animam meam
    • Tertio Nocturno
      • Responsorium VII: Tradiderunt me
      • Responsorium VIII: Jesum tradidit
      • Responsorium IX: Caligaverunt oculi mei
    • Laudes
      • Miserere
      • Benedictus
    • Ad Solemnem Actionem Liturgicam
      • Passio Secundum Ioannem (nur die polyphonen Teile: das Volk)
      • Motette: Vere languores
      • Improperia: Popule meus
  • Holy Saturday Sabbato Sancto
    • Primo Nocturno
      • Lectio I: De Lamentatione - Heth. Misericordiae Domini
      • Lectio II: Aleph. Quommodo obscuratum
      • Lectio III: Incipit oratio Jeremiae
    • Secundo Nocturno
      • Responsorium IV: Recessit pastor
      • Responsorium V: O vos omnes
      • Responsorium VI: Ecce quomodo
    • Tertio Nocturno
      • Responsorium VII: Astiterunt reges
      • Responsorium VIII: Aestatus sum
      • Responsorium IX: Sepulto Domino
    • Laudes
      • Miserere
      • Benedictus
    • Dominica in passione
      • Hymne: Vexilla Regis

BODY

REFERENCES

  1. ^ [1]

NOTES AND PREPARATION

  • huge collection of music for Holy Week was published in 1585. It contained his setting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, two passions and an assortment of hymns and motets, as well as the set of responsories for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday that Tenebrae sing here.
  • the ways in which certain words or phrases in each of the nocturnes, two of them for each day, are emphasised,
  • works mix the words of the Gospels with other texts commenting on collective suffering written around the 4th century, and would traditionally have been performed as part of a moving service in which candles are slowly extinguished to mark the progress and suffering of Christ that forms the Passion story.
  • The “Tenebrae” (“shadows”) are a combination of two offices, Matins and Lauds, sung between the Thursday and Saturday of Holy Week. The Maundy Thursday office appeals especially to the poetic imagination by the gradual extinguishing, as the singing proceeds, of the fifteen candles representing Christ, the disciples (excluding Judas Iscariot) and the three Marys.
  • The text for the responds was assembled probably in the fourth century and narrates the Passion by combining phrases from the Gospels with other commentaries on the nature of Christ’s suffering. Obviously this is liturgical music of the most serious, sombre and “vertical” nature.


The eighteen Tenebrae Responsories of Victoria, each for four voices (but with varying disposition of voices) are among his most inspired settings of sacred texts, adhering to strict liturgical form, with six responsories for the second and third nocturns of Matins for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.

  • Table? (# - title/name - scoring - length in bars (time signature) - average performing time - latin text - English translation - biblical text ref -
    • bars (ref to a score) IMSLP?; note for performing time (comparison of three leading CDs); English translation (note that ColonelHenry)
  • Feria V in coena Domini ad Matutinum - Maundy Thursday
    • 1. Amicus meus osculi SATB
    • 2. Judas, mercador pessimus SSAT (also TTBB)
    • 3. Unus ex discipulis SATB
    • 4. Eram quasi agnus SATB
    • 5. Una hora SSAT (also TTBB)
    • 6. Seniores populi SATB
  • Feria VI in parasceve ad Matutinum - Good Friday
    • 7. Tamquam ad latronem SATB
    • 8. Tenebrae factae sunt TTBB (also SSAT)
    • 9. Animam meam dilectam SATB
    • 10. Tradiderunt me SATB
    • 11. Jesum tradidit impius SSAT
    • 12. Caligaverunt oculi mei SATB
  • Sabbato Sancto ad Matutinum - Holy Saturday
    • 13. Recessit pastor noster SATB
    • 14. O vos omnes SSAT (also SATB, TTBB)
    • 15. Ecce quomodo moritur justus SATB
    • 16. Astiterunt reges SATB
    • 17. Aestimatus sum TTBB (and SSAT)
    • 18. Sepulto Domino SATB



  • Lassus: Tears of St Peter - Lagrime di San Pietro, a collection of 20 spiritual madrigals and one motet for seven voices; A cycle of intense reflections on the sorrows of St Peter following his denial of Christ, it was assembled shortly before the composer's death in 1594 and dedicated to Pope Clement VIII.
    • It is a setting of a twenty verse poem by the Italian poet, Luigi Tansillo (Pub. 1560) to which Lassus added a final motet. The poet Tansillo imagines the grief beyond grief that Peter feels after he has actively denied Christ three times before the cock crows; an intensely emotional thought for contemplation! The final motet is the response of Christ while on the cross to St. Peter, the final words being: "And though the outward pain be great, the internal agony is graver still when I find you ungrateful". Thus for St. Peter there is no ecstasy following his agony.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Tenebrae_Responsories_(Victoria)&oldid=601042563"