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The sentences beginning `Christ has died! Christ is risen! ... ' mark a significant point in the Eucharistic Prayer of the Communion Service. This is the moment when the whole congregation joins in the act of `remembering' (`anamnesis') of which most of the words will have been spoken, or will be spoken, by the presiding minister.
The `anamnesis' part of the thanksgiving prayer follows the `Sanctus' (`Holy, holy, holy Lord') and its antiphon `Blessed is he who comes . . . '. It includes a `remembrance' of the Last Supper of Jesus, and its accompanying words of institution `in remembrance of him'; and it continues by placing our own commemoration in the same context. In between, the acclamation recalls the central act - the death and resurrection of Jesus - which the Last Supper foreshadows and our own celebration reflects, and provides the essential link between the two.
In some periods and in some traditions of Communion liturgy, it has been assumed that the whole of the Communion prayer is a priestly act reserved for the person specially consecrated to repeat it, in which the congregation has only a passive role. The Anglican liturgy, represented by the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, makes no provision for participation at this point; and even churches which have prided themselves on recognising a priesthood of `all believers' (i.e. the whole congregation, not each individual separately) have frequently been content to leave the whole of this part of the liturgy to the presiding minister.
In recent years, however, more account has been taken of the importance of demonstrating that this central link, between the remembrance of the Last Supper and the celebration of our own Communion, is one which should be made by all present. This is achieved in word as well as (later) in the action of sharing and receiving the bread and wine.
There are many forms of words used at this point in the eucharistic prayer. In essence they are based on 1 Cor.11:26 `We proclaim the Lord's death [ and resurrection ] until he comes.' They occur in this form in a recent (1969) order of the Latin Mass, where they are derived from an ancient Syrian liturgy:
Mortem tuam annuntiamus Domine et tuam resurrectionem confitemur donec venias.
With minor changes of pronoun and tense and the addition of `resurrection', this is the same statement as that of Paul in 1 Cor.11, which also related specifically to the communion meal. In many English orders, however, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, these words are often replaced at this point in the service with the three-fold summary:
Christ has died: Christ is risen: Christ will come again.
Among English Protestant churches, the United Reformed Church was one of the first to incorporate this `summary of the Gospel', in its 1974 Book of Order for Worship on the Lord's Day. There it was placed, not in the eucharistic prayer itself, but after Communion, as a responsive recapitulation of the whole of the preceding celebration. During the compilation of that Service Book, there was some hesitation over the interpretation of Paul's closing words `until he come' (`achri hou elthêi' - Latin `donec veniat'). There have been times when this clause, like the parallel prayer of the primitive Church `Marana tha' - `Come, Lord, come', has been interpreted in an unthinking literal sense, which leads only to disappointment and cynicism when the `second coming' appears to be indefinitely postponed.
The editors of the URC Service Book, followed later by the Compilers of New Church Praise which copied this part of the Communion Service, decided to replace the final clause with one based on 1 Cor.15:22 `In Christ shall all be made alive'. In that passage also, Paul was describing, in the context of the resurrection of Jesus, what to him and to his readers was a future event; but because that event was to be `in Christ', who is already risen, it becomes a present reality as well as a future event for all who belong to him.
However, although the substituted clause was perhaps theologically more appropriate, other churches were also revising their Communion liturgies and seeking to incorporate some form of Acclamation in the eucharistic prayer; and there was a general move towards the 3-fold form of words which has now been adopted by many churches. It appears (as one of several alternatives) in the Pope John Sunday Missal (1978), and as the normal form of Acclamation in the Methodist Service Book (1975) and the Anglican Alternative Service Book (1980) as well as the United Reformed Church service books of 1979 and 1989.
A classic description of the Eucharistic Prayer used in the 4th century Syrian Church was given by the French scholar Mgr L.Duchesne in Christian Worship, Its Origin and Evolution (tr. from the 3rd French edition by M.L.McClure, 2nd edn 1904); this shows very clearly the point at which the Acclamations fit into the words of `remembrance' (though in this case they are not explicitly made by the congregation). For an extract from this description, click here > > >
END of note on Acclamations. Return to Top . . .
[ . . . after the invitation `Lift up your hearts' &c. (the Sursum corda) the bishop begins the thanksgiving prayer, . . . ]
. . . concluding, at length, by a return to the mysterious sanctuary . . . where the Cherubim and Seraphim sing together the eternal hymn of the Trisagion.
At this point the whole congregation raise their voices, joining with the choir of angels in their hymn, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord . . . "
The hymn being ended, there is once more silence, and the bishop then proceeds with the eucharistic prayer which had been interrupted:
and he commemorates the work of Redemption, the incarnation of the Word, and His earthly life and passion. At this moment the improvisation of the celebrant follows closely the Gospel account of the Last Supper, and the mysterious words spoken for the first time by Jesus on the eve of His death are repeated at the holy table.
[ See Note below. The asterisks here mark the point where the congregation may take up the `anamnesis' in the form of an Acclamation; but they are not suggested in Duchesne's description of the Syrian service.]
Thereupon the bishop, taking as his text the last words, "Do this in memory of me", expands them, recalling to memory [ i.e. "anamnesis" ] the passion of the Son of God, His death, resurrection, ascension, and the hope of his glorious return, declaring that it is truly in keeping of Christ's command, and in commemorating these events, that the congregation offers to God this eucharistic bread and wine.
[ Note: Duchesne's last sentence shows that by `the Gospel account' he assumes a version of Luke (22:19-20), rather than Matthew or Mark, and one which includes the additional words "Do this in memory of me" which are absent from some versions of Luke and which may have been interpolated from 1 Cor.11 in some parts of the early church.
END of extract from Mgr Duchesne's account of a Syrian Eucharistic liturgy. Return to Top . . .
In the earliest centuries of Christian public worship, psalms were generally sung by a solo voice, the congregation responding by repeating the final phrase or phrases of the chant. This was called the Psalmus Responsorius, or `Respond'. Towards the end of the fourth century another kind of psalmody was introduced, consisting of a psalm chanted by two groups alternately. The practice quickly spread (as if to demonstrate that people do, after all, like joining in when given the chance) and became known as Antiphonal psalmody. The whole psalm thus sung became known as the Antiphon; and the books in which the settings were inscribed were called Antiphonaries (or Antiphoners).
The meaning of the term has changed since then. In common speech the word `antiphon' has changed to `anthem', denoting a musical setting of almost any text and in almost any format. As a technical term, the word `antiphon' now generally refers to the device, similar to the original `Responds', in which a phrase taken from, or complementing, the words of a psalm or other text is sung (or spoken) by the congregation; leaving, once more, the main body of the psalm to be sung by a solo voice or small group of singers. The word Antiphon itself is then reserved for the response sung by the congregation.
In this form the practice has been common for many centuries of worship of all kinds; but it was given a new impetus and wide popularity through the psalmody developed by Joseph Gelineau and others. It has the great practical advantage that a congregation with little or no musical experience can quickly learn a short antiphon, and thus participate in the singing or reading of a lengthy or complex psalm-setting.
In Rejoice & Sing, as elsewhere, the term Antiphon is used not only for the `Gelineau psalm' responses, but also for similar verses attached to psalms or canticles and set to `gregorian' psalm tones. Such settings can, of course, be equally well used for spoken reading as for singing.
END of note on Antiphons. Return to Top . . .
`Doxology' means `Word of Praise'; the first part of the word is the Greek equivalent of the Latin `gloria'. It has come to be used for a short statement, appended to a hymn or psalm, about `the glory of God', traditionally in a form which celebrates the three-fold nature of God as `Father, Son and Spirit'; the `logic' of this way of speaking about God was set out in the classic creeds of the Western Church, particularly in the Nicene creed (325 / 381 CE.).
The custom of singing a doxology at the end of a psalm also began, or became common, in the 4th century; and in some parts of the church was laid down as a rule. The classic formula is, of course, (with minor variations):
- Gloria Patri,
- Gloria Filio,
- Gloria (et) Spiritui sancto,
- sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum.
With the increasing use of metrical hymns in the mediaeval church, it became customary to add a similar doxology at the end of a hymn or section of a hymn, rearranged in the metre of the hymn itself. The authorship of these is often obscure, and they can rarely be attributed to the author of the hymn to which they are attached; indeed some of them may have come into use some centuries after the attributed date of the hymn they accompany.
The practice spread into vernacular hymns and liturgies, and the early Psalters in English are well supplied with doxologies in each metre. Isaac Watts included twenty versions at the end of his Psalms & Spiritual Songs (1707/9), and explained his reason for doing so:
[ Isaac Watts Psalms & Spiritual Songs, 1707/9: note at the end of the Third section "Prepar'd for the Lord's Supper", preceding the Doxologies. The text and spelling are taken from the 1st edition of Watts's Hymns & Spiritual Songs, 1707 (ed. Selma Bishop, 1962). It appears to have been printed in italics; the convention is reversed here, so that most of the text appears in roman type, while the original roman text is here italicised. ]"I Cannot perswade myself to put a full Period to these Divine Hymns, till I have address'd a special Song of Glory unto God the Father, the Son, and the holy Spirit. Tho the Latin name of it, Gloria Patri, be retain'd in our nation from the Roman Church; and Tho there may be some Excesses of superstitious Honour paid to the Words of it, [ which may have wrought some unhappy Prejudices in Weaker Christians, (Note 1*) ] yet I believe it still to be one of the noblest Parts of Christian Worship. The Subject of it is the Doctrine of the Trinity, which is that peculiar Glory of the Divine Nature, that our Lord Jesus Christ has so clearly revealed unto Men, and is so necessary to true Christianity. The Action is Praise, which is the most compleat and exalted parts (Note 2*) of heavenly Worship. I have cast the Song into a Variety of Forms, and have fitted it by a plain Version or a larger Paraphrase, to be sung either alone or at the Conclusion of another Hymn. I have added also a few Hosannas, or Ascriptions of Salvation to Christ, in the same manner, and for the same end."
Among Watts's twenty doxologies are the 4-verse hymn `I give immortal praise', included in Rejoice & Sing (No.37) in the more familiar form `We give . . . '.
As well as the traditional prose version of the Doxology ("Glory to the Father printed on the inside end cover of Rejoice & Sing (where it is given in the form adopted by the English Language Liturgical Consultation, 1987), five metrical versions of the doxology are included as RS 21-25. In many other hymns, of course, a concluding verse takes the form of a trinitarian doxology. The original function of all these, as noted above, was to round off a hymn or psalm with due solemnity, so that whatever the particular theme of the latter it always ended with objective praise of the whole nature of God. However, it is often appropriate to sing a doxology as a separate short act of praise after any event which may suitably be ended in that way; and the five versions in RS are included partly for that purpose :-
- RS-21 Praise God from whom all blessings flow
- (Thomas Ken: Morning & Evening Hymns)
- RS-22 Laud and honour to the Father
- RS-23 Unto God be praise and honour
- RS-24 Through north and south and east and west
- RS-25 To Father, Son and Spirit blest
END of note on Doxologies. Return to Top . . .
A `sequence' (in mediaeval hymnody) is a musical phrase with words attached. In origin it was an extension of the sung "Alleluia" which usually ended the Gradual or Antiphon separating the Epistle and Gospel readings; hence the name, from the Latin sequens = `following'.
At first consisting of a few decorative notes, it became extended to a phrase, then a melody, sometimes of considerable length; and in order to give it a more coherent structure, words began to be fitted to the notes. In time it became a hymn in its own right; and a great number of these compositions have been found in Missals and Breviaries dating from the 10th to the 16th century. Julian, in an article on "Sequences" (pages 1041-53), gives the Latin first-lines of more than 700 of these.
The invention of the verbalised `sequence' is generally attributed to the Swiss Benedictine monk Nokter Balbulus (c.840-912). A collection of Nokter's sequences made c.885 contains his description of how he came to write them. Among his duties in the monastery at St Gall was that of intoning the Alleluias, with their customary twiddly bits at the end. Remembering the notes was always a problem; but a visiting monk showed him an Antiphonary with made-up words for these musical endings, by way of mnemonic. It occurred to Notker that more meaningful and uplifting words could be written; and his tutor encouraged him in this, with the innovative suggestion that each syllable should go to one note, which had apparently no-one had previously thought of doing.
Notker went on to write a number of Sequences on these lines, and was probably reponsible for the music as well as the words of many of them. Julian lists 114 in the A.D.885 collection referred to above, of which between 50 and 70 are likely to be Notker's work. The format which developed in the following six centuries is derived from these.
Most, if not all, of the mediaeval Sequences were associated with a particular season or festival-day, ranging from Pentecost to the patronal day of St Colman (no relation). In course of time the sung Sequences became more and more elaborate, and the Roman Church from time to time attempted to control or prohibit their use. In 1570 the Roman Missal limited the number of Sequences permitted to four, all for major occasions: `Victimae Paschali', for Easter; `Veni Sancte Spiritus', for Pentecost; `Lauda Sion Salvatorem', for the festival of Corpus Christi; and the `Dies irae', for Requiem Masses. Later the `Stabat mater dolorosa' was added for the Friday after Passion Sunday. A number of hymns and melodies, however, retained their historic connections with the Sequence, either being derived from one, or by the use of centos from longer hymns to form the basis of a Sequence.
The following hymns in Rejoice & Sing are based on or derived from Mediaeval sequences, or from poems which were developed into sequences.
- RS-389 Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts }
- RS-356 O Jesus, King most wonderful }
- - both being centos from `Jesu dulcis memoria' (or `Dulcis Jesu memoria') also known as "The Rosy Sequence", from its use as a hymn to accompany the "Ave Maria"s of the Rosary.
- RS-297 Come, thou Holy Spirit, come
- - from `Veni sancte spiritus' also known as "The Golden Sequence"
Some other Sequences, with hymns and/or tunes derived from them :-
- Corde natus ex parentis
- (RS-181 Of the Father's {love}/{heart} begotten / Divinum mysterium)
- Finita jam sunt proelia
- (RS-250 The strife is o'er, the battle done)
- Missus Gabriel de caelis
- (AMR-456 Jesus, kind above all other)
- O filii et filiae
- (RS-244 O sons and daughters let us sing)
- Salve feste dies
- (RS-322 Welcome, Day of the Lord)
- Victimae Paschali
- (RS-235 Christ lag in Todesbanden )
See also a note on the Sequence for `Low Sunday': Laudes Salvatori.
END of note on Sequences. Return to Top . . .
This is properly called "`Laudes' Sunday"; `Low Sunday' is a popular corruption of the name. `Laudes' is the first word of the Sequence appointed for the Sunday after Easter Day in a number of mediaeval Missals, including those of Sarum and Hereford. The full opening line of the Sequence is
- `Laudes Salvatori voce modulemur supplici'
- (Let us sing praises to the Saviour with humble voice)
The association of the Sequence and the day (and hence the name of the day) is Anglican in origin. In the Greek church calendar the day is called "St Thomas's Sunday", and it has its own sets of (greek) hymns, known as Odes, which constitute the `Canon' for the day.
See Julian p.664b on the Sequence itself, and a general note on Sequences, below.
END of note on Low Sunday. Return to Top . . .
~~~~~~~~
A definition of Plainsong is given in Percy Scholes' Oxford Companion to Music (O.U.P. 3rd edition 1941; copyright; reproduced by permission):
"The word is applied to the large body of traditional ritual melody of the Western Christian Church. It is a translation of `Cantus Planus' - in contradistinction to `Cantus figuratus' (florid song, implying a counterpoint added to the traditional melody) or `Cantus mensuratus' (measured song, implying the regularity of rhythm associated with harmonic music). The term `Plain' then may taken in the literal sense of unadorned, and as . . . dating from the period when harmonic accompaniment to the church's ritual was beginning, so that a distinction had become necessary . . . .
"[ It ] grew up during the first centuries of Christianity, influenced posssibly by the music of the Jewish synagogue and certainly by the Greek modal system. At the end of the fourth century Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, finding a great disorder in the church music of Christendom, fixed upon four scales [ modes ] to be used . . . . At the end of the sixth century Pope Gregory added [ is said to have been responsible for adding ] four more scales . . . .
"`Plainchant' and `Gregorian Chant' are common synonyms . . . The Eastern/Greek branch of the Christian Church and the Jewish Church have similar bodies of melodic ritual song, but the term `Plainsong', as ordinarily used, does not include them. ... "
[ End of quotation from Percy Scholes ]
[ Below is part of a Lecture by Henry Allon containing a discussion of Gregorian Psalm-tones. The lecture was entitled "Church Song in its relations to Church Life", and was given at the Exeter Hall, London, circa December 1861. It is here transcribed from a copy of the printed text of the Lecture (published by J.Nisbet, undated) in the Congregational Library, London. Some footnotes in the printed text are here incorporated into the body of the lecture script, and are enclosed in square brackets. ]
. . . The mode of singing established by Ambrose [ 340-397 ], the designations of which indicate their Eastern origin [ Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian ], consisted of four modes or scales, according to which, all ecclesiastical compositions were to be arranged. These were called the Ambrosian tones. The word "tone" is simply our modern word "tune"; it is derived from a Greek word signifying tension. Hence, when a physician would brace a patient's nerves, he gives them a "tone", by giving him a "tonic." The tension of a string gives out a sound, - the sound of its tension, hence called a "tone." From the same source our word "tenor" is derived; the tone or tune in old psalmody being always given to the tenor voice. Hence, too, our words "intoning," "intonation," &c. In music, however, the tone is not the mere single sound, but the tune, the mode or system of sounds according to which the melody is constructed.
The four tones or modes which Ambrose had fixed, were pure or simple tones; hence called "authentic." [ The 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th tones. ] These having become corrupted, were restored by Gregory to their primitive simplicity, and to these he added four subordinate tones - hence called "plagal," or appended tones. [ The 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th tones. ] And to these eight Gregorian tones, as they came to be called, a ninth was afterwards added - an irregular form of the eighth - and perhaps the most beautiful of them all. This tradition affirms to have been the old Temple chant to the Lesser Hallel or Passover Psalms. Others, however, affirm it to be of French origin - hence it was called in Italy, the "Peregrine," or Foreign Tone.
These eight tones, therefore, are simply eight modes or models of musical composition: and all ecclesiatical music constructed according to them, whether of thirteen centuries ago, or of yesterday, is called Gregorian music. If any of the Temple chants have descended to us, we probably possess them in these Gregorian tones.
Gregory began his work of reformation by collecting all the fragments of Church music that he could find, and arranging them according to these eight models. He caused an order of service to be written out, consisting of Psalms, Responses, and Masses, some of which are still extant, and from which the service of the Romish Church is derived. He utterly banished the "Canto Figurato," or florid song, as being too light for ecclesiastical uses, and established the "Canto Fermo," or plain song. He founded a singing school, which continued to exist in Rome 300 years after his death, as did also the whip wherewith he corrected his refractory pupils, and the bed upon which his infirmities compelled him to recline during the singing lesson.
I may just add that Gregorian music was introduced into Britain by Augustine, Gregory's missionary, and became the source of all our ecclesiastical music. It was also introduced into Germany by Boniface, and became the great fount of Lutheran melody. The works of the great masters - Handel and Mendelssohn especially - are pervaded with it. It has its reason and necessity in the very nature of things, therefore it has never been surpassed, and can never be superseded. As well attempt to divorce the tone of precation from prayer, as the principles of Gregorian music from worship-song. Hence no people rejecting it has ever had a music.
[ End of extract from Henry Allon's Lecture ]
END of notes on Plainsong and Gregorian Chants . Return to Top . . .
Soon after the Second World War a group of French scholars translated the Psalms direct from Hebrew into French in a version incorporating the rhythmic patterns of the Hebrew. (See separate note on the text and publications.)
For singing these texts one of the team, the Jesuit priest Joseph Gelineau, devised a method of which the essential feature is that the principal verbal accents come at fixed time intervals. The rapid success of the method in France spurred a British Roman Catholic group, The Grail, to make an English translation, also direct from the Hebrew, based on the same principles. Fr Gelineau's chants were used for this English translation, although some of the antiphons needed new settings.
For Rejoice & Sing, Psalms 8 (RS-670), 23 (RS-678) and 24 (RS-680), with their antiphons, are taken from the first of The Grail collections, 24 Psalms and a Canticle 1956 (corresponding to the French Vingt-quatre Psaumes et un Cantique 1953); and Psalms 67 (RS-693) and 84 (RS-702) from the second collection 30 Psalms and Two Canticles 1958 (corresponding to the French version, 1955). Psalm 47 at RS-693 is from Responsorial Psalms for Singing 1972.
In a Gelineau chant all bars of music are of exactly the same duration and each accompanimental chord is always played whether or not there are any syllables in that bar. For each line the number of stressed syllables (those printed in bold type) is fixed but the remaining syllables may vary in number. As in Anglican chanting, the enunciation and pacing of the words should correspond to careful speaking.
Fr Gelineau envisaged the verses being sung by a cantor or a unison choral group, the rest of the congregation responding with the antiphons. But there is no reason why the British Protestant preference for greater congregational vocal contribution should not be accommodated.
This technique was used also in the setting by Erik Routley and Alan Luff of the `Te Deum' (RS.757 ).
Percy Scholes, in The Oxford Companion to Music 1938/1941, gave a detailed and fascinating description of the 700-year old profession of `Parish Clerk'. The title applied to unordained but salaried officials of the Church, `lower than the priest but higher than the sexton'. His duties included `that of making or leading the responses in the service, pronouncing a loud `Amen' at the end of every prayer and of the sermon, and giving out the metrical psalm and when on great occasions there was an anthem, that also'. (Compare the debased non-conformist practice of leaving all this to the minister.)
William Riley, in his Parochial Music Corrected 1762, blamed what he regarded as the decline in Church music on the practice by which some congregations were enabled to appoint their own Parish Clerks, regardless of the wishes of the clergy or patron. With the introduction of metrical psalm-singing, the duties of the clerk came to include the choice of psalms and hymns; and it became possible for him, and through him for the congregation, to adopt styles of singing and accompaniment very different from those of earlier traditions.
Nevertheless the institution must often have been popular, as an epitaph (quoted by Percy Scholes) suggests:
- The Vocal Powers here let us mark
- Of PHILIP, our late Parish Clerk;
- In Church none ever heard a Layman,
- With a clearer Voice say Amen.
- Who now with Hallelujah's Sound
- Like Him can make the Roof rebound?
- The Choirs lament his Choral Tones,
- The Town - so soon Here lie his Bones.
- Sleep undisturb'd within thy peaceful shrine
- Till Angels wake thee with such notes as thine.
[ Memorial of PHILIP ROE (died 1815) in Bakewell Church, Derbyshire; quoted in The Oxford Companion to Music (3rd edn 1941 &c.) ]
END of note on Parish Clerks and the saying of `Amen' . Return to Top . . .
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(The Rejoice & Sing Enchiridion:edited by David Goodall; last amended 26/4/03)