The Tract of the Mass of Palm Sunday, sung by the Choeur Grégorien de Paris. (Psalm 21, 2-9; 18-19; 22; 24; 32.) What makes this recording particularly good is not just the strong voices and tempo, but the way the parts which are spoken in the first person (“But I am a worm... All they that saw me...”) are sung by a single voice, a practice which imitates the division of the Passion that follows it into three parts. Also note how beautifully the cantor does the melisma on the words “Libera me”, which deliberate strays from the normal melody of the second mode tracts to represent the Lord crying out in the midst of His Passion.
Deus, Deus meus, réspice in me: quare me dereliquísti?V. Longe a salúte mea verba delictórum meórum.
V. Deus meus, clamábo per diem, nec exáudies: in nocte, et non ad insipiéntiam mihi.
V. Tu autem in sancto hábitas, laus Israël.
V. In te speravérunt patres nostri: speravérunt, et liberásti eos.
V. Ad te clamavérunt, et salvi facti sunt: in te speravérunt, et non sunt confusi.
V. Ego autem sum vermis, et non homo: oppróbrium hóminum et abjéctio plebis.
V. Omnes, qui vidébant me, aspernabántur me: locúti sunt lábiis et movérunt caput.
V. Sperávit in Dómino, erípiat eum: salvum fáciat eum, quóniam vult eum.
V. Ipsi vero consideravérunt et conspexérunt me: divisérunt sibi vestiménta mea, et super vestem meam misérunt mortem.
V. Líbera me de ore leónis: et a córnibus unicornuórum humilitátem meam.
V. Qui timétis Dóminum, laudáte eum: univérsum semen Jacob, magnificáte eum.
V. Annuntiábitur Dómino generátio ventúra: et annuntiábunt cœli justítiam ejus.
V. Pópulo, qui nascétur, quem fecit Dóminus.
O God, my God, look upon me: why hast Thou forsaken me?
V. Far from my salvation, are the words of my sins.
V. O my God, I cry out by day and Thou wilt not hear, by night, and it shall not be reputed as folly to me.
V. But Thou dwellest in the holy place, o praise of Israel!
V. In Thee our fathers hoped; they hoped, and Thou didst deliver them.
V. To Thee they cried, and they were saved; in Thee they hoped, and they were not confounded.
V. But I am a worm, not a man; the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people.
V. All who saw me, laughed me to scorn; they spoke with their lips, and wagged their heads.
V. He hoped in the Lord; let Him deliver him: let Him save him, since He delighteth in him.
V. But they looked upon and stared at me; they divided my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots.
V. Deliver me from the lion’s mouth, and my lowliness from the horns of the unicorns.
V. Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him: all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him.
V. There shall be declared to the Lord a generation to come: and the heavens shall show forth His justice.
V. To a people that shall be born, which the Lord has made.
