De fructu óperum tuórum, Dómine, satiábitur terra: ut edúcas panem de terra, et vinum laetíficet cor hóminis: ut exhílaret faciem in óleo, et panis cor hóminis confírmet.
The earth is saturated with the fruit of your works, O Lord, and You cultivate food from the ground: wine to give (outward) joy to the human heart, oil to exhilarate the face, and bread to sustain the human heart.
Psalm 104: 13, 14, 15
GN 317
GT 329
I relied on both Laon and St. Gall neumes to guide my reconstruction-recording of the last two words of the chant, hóminis confírmet.
On the penultimate word, hóminis, I followed the example of St. Gall rather than Laon. Although Laon shows a pes on hóminis, St. Gall gives a virga. This makes sense in light of the melodic-modal line, since the entire word is shaped as an arc around FA, the final in mode VI. FA coincides with the tonic accent on hóminis.The following note, SOL, is a passing tone to the melisma on the final syllable, which ultimately soars to TE before descending back down to FA. The pes unduly accents the post-tonic syllable and hampers the excitement building up to the melisma.
I chose Laon neumes over confírmet since the attentive articulation on the double liquescants “n” and “r” cause a natural ritardando at the final cadence and create double neighbor motion around the final, FA. I interpreted the cephalicus over confírmet as a diminutive clivis. This neume, only found in Laon, creates a lower neighbor. The epiphonus on confírmet, reflected in both Laon and St. Gall, is a diminutive pes. This liquescent acts like an upper neighbor on the tonic syllable. “Diminutive” only refers to the placement of the consonantal buzz; in this context, it would occur entirely on the second note of the neume grouping. In contrast, an augmentative liquescent would require the execution of the vowel on the second note before closing to the consonant. (How 9th-century singers closed on an “r” remains a mystery; I would be delighted to hear some theories!).
I have also decided to keep the chant in the original mode, VI, rather than transpose it to III, as the editors of the Graduale Novum have done. The 12th-century Premonstratensian gradual from Porrentruy, CH-P 18, lists De fructu as mode 6T1. There are no other concordances besides E 121 in the Cantus database, so I cannot easily compare other De fructu modal assignments.
As a communion chant, there is an evident textual play between natural and supernatural food. Because many early Masses were celebrated in the context of an agape meal, psalms extolling the wonders of God’s nourishment were obvious candidates. The last line, et panis cor hóminis confírmet, is a prefigurement of the Eucharist: the bread that sustains the human body has been elevated into a sacrament that strengthens the spiritual life. Yet this in no way negates the miracle of natural food; even these fleeting things, like bread, oil, and wine can give us joy. Imagine eating roasted vegetables without olive oil. (I have recently; the result was essentially inedible). These three staples of the ancient world are still dear to us today. While there have been some incredible saints that have lived exclusively off the Eucharist, the rest of us plebeians need nourishment – and the Lord has ordained this good.
- Search chants: De fructu operum tuorum domine”, Cantus.org, Creative Commons License, accessed 24 August 2024, https://cantusdatabase.org/chant-search/?search_bar=De+fructu+operum+tuorum+domine
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