Vovéte et réddite Dómino Deo vestro, omnes qui in circúitu eius affértis múnera: terríbili, et ei qui aufert spíritum príncipum: terríbili apud omnes reges terræ.
Make vows and give to the Lord your God, all you who circle around Him, offer your gifts to the One who is awesome: He who banishes the spirits of princes, Who is terrible in the sight of all the rulers of the earth.
Psalm 76: 12-13
GT 335
GN 325
The text – and its context within the Mass – still bewilders me. The first half of the text, admonishing all people throughout the world to make vows and offer gifts to the Lord, would perhaps be more fitting for an offertory chant. Although we do give all of ourselves to Him in Eucharistic participation, we begin that thanksgiving of praise with the offertory procession. The second half of the text evokes God’s sovereignty and majesty; I’ve translated the word terríbili to mean both “awesome” and “terrible”. This attribute – banishing worldly powers and principalities – seems a bit extreme for a communion chant. The imperative verb forms and the description of those circling around Him describe Old Testament Temple worship, and we can almost hear the cacophony swelling from people of every tribe and tongue. Thus, sacrifice of the heart was integral in this prefigurement to the Mass.
Even though there are a few motives and textual ideas to organize the piece, it is written in a sort of through-composed form. The ascending motion on vovéte, a double neighbor figure surrounding RE, precedes a similar ascending motion on réddite, and therefore links the two imperative verb forms. There is an obvious parallelism on Dómino and vestro, with both sets of tristophae underlining the personal nature of our God. There is a clear protus cadence on múnera, thus dividing the text – and music – into approximately two sections. Both settings of terríbili structurally interject the text. The first setting builds melodic anticipation through a higher, ascending tessitura, while the second, lower, setting prepares the singer and listener for a continued descent down to low LA. The piece ends with another characteristic protus cadence on terrae.
The only melodic difference I made between the Vatican edition and my rendition is affértis. The Vatican edition gives a pes from MI to FA. Laon notates an uncinus while St. Gall notates an oriscus. The pes clearly is not reflected in the neumes. An oriscus here makes sense, since it tends towards the following note. In this case, it pulls from FA, the dominant, to RE, the final through an initial half-step descent.
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