Responsories for Holy Week (Latin: Responsoria pro hebdomada sancta) are polyphonic settings for the matins responsories, not of the whole of Holy Week, but only of the last three days: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
Until the 1955 reform of the Holy Week ceremonies by Pope Pius XII, matins and lauds of these days were normally anticipated on the evening of the preceding day and were celebrated with the special ceremonies of Tenebrae . [1] As a result, the readings and the responsories are sometimes associated respectively with Holy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, rather than with Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
Also before 1955 the term Triduum Sacrum , which now includes Easter Sunday and takes in only the close of Maundy Thursday, was applied to the whole of Maundy Thursday, including its matins, and excluded Easter Sunday. [2]
Composers who produced polyphonic settings for the responsories in question, which are known also as the Tenebrae responsories, include Carlo Gesualdo ( Responsoria et alia ad Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae spectantia , 1611, Jean L'Héritier, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, 19 settings (H.111 -119, H.126 - 134 and H.144), Joseph Haydn (Hob XXIIb), Jan Dismas Zelenka (ZWV 55), Max Reger, Francis Poulenc, Pierre Boulez. Composers generally set to music only some of the 27 responsories.
Within the liturgy, each responsory followed a reading. Each day's matins was divided into three nocturns, each with three readings. Over the three days, therefore, the responsories, like the readings, came to a total of 27. They were originally sung in plainchant.
Each day, the first nocturn had three readings from Jeremiah's Book of Lamentations, and the second nocturn three readings from one or other of Saint Augustine's commentaries on the Psalms. The three readings of the third nocturn were from the First Epistle to the Corinthians on Maundy Thursday, from the Epistle to the Hebrews on the other two days. [3]
Maundy Thursday is called in Latin Feria V/Quinta in Cena Domini (an older spelling has Coena instead of Cena), meaning Thursday (fifth day of the week) of the Lord's Supper. Compositions for its nine responsories can therefore appear under such titles as Feria V – In Coena Domini. They can also be named by the day on which they were actually sung, as Charpentier's Les neuf répons du mercredi saint ("The nine responsories of Holy Wednesday").
The three readings of the first nocturn of Maundy Thursday are Lamentations 1:1–5, 1:6–9 and 1:10–14.
The first Maundy Thursday responsory refers to the Agony of Christ in Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives. Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Premier répons après la première leçon du premier nocturne, H.111, for 3 voices and continuo (1680).
The second responsory represents Jesus speaking to his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane. The first two lines of the responsory are Matthew26:38. The last two lines of are more freely based on different Gospel passages, including Mark 14:50 and Luke 24:7. [4]
Settings of this responsory include a motet by Orlande de Lassus, appearing as No. 1 in the Drexel 4302 manuscript, a SSATB motet attributed to Johann Kuhnau, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, 2 settings: Second répons après la seconde leçon du premier nocturne, H.112 (1680), for 2 voices and continuo and Second répons après la seconde leçon du premier nocturne du Mercredi Saint, H.126 (1690), for 2 voices and continuo and a setting as part of Francis Poulenc's Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence .
The readings of the second nocturn of Maundy Thursday are from Saint Augustine's commentary on Psalm 54/55
Troisième répons après la troisième leçon du premier nocturne, H.113 (1680), for 1 voice and continuo
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Premier répons après la première leçon du second nocturne du Mercredi Saint, H.127 (1690), for 1 voice , 2 flutes and continuo
Second of Poulenc's Sept répons des ténèbres .
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Quatrième répons après la première leçon du second nocturne, H.114 (1680), for 2 voices and continuo
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Troisième répons après la troisième leçon du second nocturne du Mercredi Saint, H.132 (1690), for 1 voice, 2 violins and continuo
The readings of the third nocturn of Maundy Thursday are 1 Corinthians 11:17−22, 11:23−26, 11:27−34
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Cinquième répons après la seconde leçon du second nocturne, H.115 (1680), for 1 voice and continuo
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Sixième répons après la troisième leçon du second nocturne, H.116 (1680), for 3 voices and continuo
First of Poulenc's Sept répons des ténèbres.
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Septième répons après la première leçon du troisième nocturne, H.117 (1680), for 1 voice and continuo
Good Friday, Feria VI/Sexta in Parasceve, meaning Friday (sixth day of the week) of the Day of Preparation (from Greek Παρασκευή). Thus this second set of nine responsories can appear under such titles as Feria VI – In Parasceve.
The readings of the first nocturn of Good Friday are Lamentations 2:8–11, 2:12–15 and 3:1–9.
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Répons après la première leçon de ténèbres du Jeudi Saint, H.144 (mid1690), for 1 voice, 2 flutes and continuo
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Second répons après la seconde leçon du premier nocturne du Jeudi Saint, H.128, for soloists, chorus, flutes, strings and continuo (1690)
Second of Poulenc's Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence.
The readings of the second nocturn of Good Friday are from Saint Augustine's commentary on Psalm 63/64
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Premier répons après la première leçon du second nocturne du Jeudi Saint, H.133 (1690), for 1 voice, 2 flutes,, 2 violins and continuo
This responsory is included on p. 269 of the Lutheran Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch (1682). Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Second répons après la seconde leçon du second nocturne du Jeudi Saint, for 1 voice, flutes, strings and continuo, H.129 (1690).Third of Poulenc's Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence, and fifth of his Sept répons des ténèbres
The readings of the third nocturn of Holy Saturday are taken from Hebrews4:11 –5:10.
Third of Poulenc's Sept répons des ténèbres
Fourth of Poulenc's Sept répons des ténèbres
Holy Saturday, Sabbato Sancto in Latin. Responsories for this day can appear under such titles as Sabbato Sancto.
The readings of the first nocturn of Holy Saturday are from Lamentations, 3:22–30, 4:1–6 and 5:1–11.
Responsorium:
Sicut ovis ad occisionem ductus est,
Et dum male tractaretur, non aperuit os suum :
Traditus est ad mortem ut vivificaret populum suum.
Versus:
Tradidit in mortem animam suam,
Et inter sceleratos reputatus est.
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Second répons après la seconde leçon du premier nocturne de Vendredi Saint, H.130 (1690), for 2 voices, 2 flutes and continuo
This responsory has some parallels with the Book of Joel, e.g. "plange quasi virgo" ("Lament like a girl", 1:8), "accingite vos et plangite sacerdotes ululate ministri altaris" ("Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests; Wail, you ministers of the altar", 1:13) and "magnus enim dies Domini et terribilis valde" ("for the day of Yahweh is great and very awesome", 2:11).
Responsorium:
Plange quasi virgo, plebs mea.
Ululate pastores, in cinere et cilicio,
Quia veniet Dies Domini Magna
Et amara valde.
Versus:
Accingite vos, sacerdotes, et plangite,
Ministri altaris, aspergite vos cinere.
The readings of the second nocturn of Holy Saturday are from Saint Augustine's commentary on Psalm 63/64.
The text is adapted from the Latin Vulgate translation of Lamentations1:12. Some of the most famous settings of the text are by Tomás Luis de Victoria (two settings for four voices: 1572 and 1585), Carlo Gesualdo (five voices: 1603; six voices: 1611), Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Second répons après la 1ère leçon du second nocturne du Vendredi saint, H.134, for 1 voice, flutes and continuo (1690) and Pablo Casals (mixed choir: 1932).
Based on Isaiah57:1–2. A german version of the text of this responsory is set as Der Gerechte kömmt um . Poulenc set it as the seventh of his Sept répons des ténèbres.
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Troisième répons après la troisième leçon du second nocturne du Vendredi Saint, H.131 (1690), for 1 voice, muted strings and continuo
The three readings of the third nocturn of Holy Saturday are Hebrews9:11–14, 9:15–18 and 9:19–22.
Sixth of Poulenc's Sept répons des ténèbres
Marc-Antoine Charpentier was a French composer of the Baroque era.
Michel Richard Delalande [de Lalande] was a French Baroque composer and organist who was in the service of King Louis XIV. He was one of the most important composers of grands motets. He also wrote orchestral suites known as Simphonies pour les Soupers du Roy and ballets.
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The Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet have been set by various composers.
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The Leçons de ténèbres pour le mercredi saint are a series of three vocal pieces composed by François Couperin for the liturgies of Holy Week, 1714, at the Abbaye royale de Longchamp.
Psalm 130 is the 130th psalm of the Book of Psalms, one of the Penitential psalms. The first verse is a call to God in deep sorrow, from "out of the depths" or "out of the deep", as it is translated in the King James Version of the Bible and the Coverdale translation respectively. It is one of 15 psalms that begin with the words "A song of ascents". The Book of Psalms is in Ketuvim, the third section of the Hebrew Bible, and is a book of the Christian Old Testament. In the Greek Septuagint version of the Bible, and in the Latin Vulgate, this psalm is Psalm 129 in a slightly different numbering system. In Latin, it is known as De profundis.
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Leçons de ténèbres is a genre of French Baroque music which developed from the polyphonic lamentations settings for the tenebrae service of Renaissance composers such as Sermisy, Gesualdo, Tallis, and Tomás Luis de Victoria into virtuoso solo chamber music.
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Responsoria et alia ad Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae spectantia is a collection of music for Holy Week by Italian composer Carlo Gesualdo, published in 1611. It consists of three sets of nine short pieces, one set for each of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday, and a psalm and a hymn. The work was written for unaccompanied voices: two soprano parts, alto, two tenor parts, and bass.
Tristis est anima mea is a sacred motet for five voices attributed to Johann Kuhnau, Thomaskantor in Leipzig. The text is the second responsory at Tenebrae for Maundy Thursday, one of the Latin texts kept in the liturgy after the town converted to Lutheranism.
Tristis est anima mea is the second responsory of the Tenebrae for Maundy Thursday. The Latin text refers to Christ's Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, a part of his Passion.
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Sept répons des ténèbres, FP 181, is a piece of sacred music composed by Francis Poulenc in 1961. He wrote the work in seven movements on Latin texts from the Responsories for the Holy Week and scored it for soprano, choir, and orchestra. Written on a commission from the New York Philharmonic, it was first performed in New York's Lincoln Center in April 1963 after the composer's death.
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