The Recovering Choir Director

Longtime followers of this ‘blog may have noticed that our schola cantorum at St. Matthew’s has recently begun employing the Gregorian propers at the Introit, Offertory and Communion (from the ad libitum), with positive results, both musical and spiritual.

This Sunday’s Offertory chant provides the choir with a baptism of total immersion. Precatus est Moyses [ gif score ] is arguably the most difficult Offertory chant in the Sunday cycle on account of its length and melismatic flourishes, a few with which the schola is unfamiliar. More than a simple antiphon, it is a sung narrative from Exodus (cf. Exodus 32:11-14).

Precatus est Moyses in conspectu Domini Dei sui, et dixit.
Precatus est Moyses in conspectu Domini Dei sui, et dixit:
Quare, Domine, irasceris in populo tuo?
Parce irae animae tuae:
memento Abraham, Isaac et Iacob,
quibus iurasti dare terram fluentem lac et mel.
Et placatus factus est Dominus de malignitate,
quam dixit facere populo suo.

Moses prayed to the Lord his God, and said;
Moses addressed this prayer to the Lord his God, and declared:
“Why, O Lord, is your anger enkindled against your people?
Let the wrath your mind has conceived cease.
Remember Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
to whom you swore to give a land flowing with milk and honey.”
And the Lord was dissuaded from accomplishing the evil
which he had threatened to inflict upon his people.

(Translation: Gregorian Missal for Sundays)

Two versions are available online in radically different tempi and instrumentation:

- cantemusdomino.net (56kbps MP3, 2:26, 999 KB. A capella.)
- christusrex.org (128kbps MP3, 4:05, 3834 KB. With organ.)

Particularly noteworthy is the text-painting of Moses’ words at “Memento Abraham…”

There is a certain quality to the proper chants that may be likened to glossolalia. There is very little music that approaches it in this regard. In the learning stages, there is always a concern that the difficulty of the music will detract from the Scripture that it illuminates. But once that hurdle is cleared, singers can effectively convey the uniquely charismatic quality of the chant, and active listeners will be able to grasp it.

Will the choir be able to pray this text this week? Who knows. But that they are attempting to pray it (and having reasonable success) is encouragement enough.