Expectans expectavi Dominum: Mahrt on Offertories with Unusual Endings

This past weekend, the Offertory antiphon in the Extraordinary Form Mass was Expectans expectavi. When I saw this, I was immediately reminded of a most interesting article written by Dr. William Mahrt of Stanford University on this very chant, among some others. It can be found for free here.

Read this whole article and see how no music is united to the words like chant is united to the words. Also take note of the discussion about the use of fa in mode II transposed: With la as the final instead of re, fa acts as b-flat.