The Responsory Aspiciens a Longe

In the Roman Divine Office, the first responsory of Matins on the First Sunday of Advent, Aspiciens a longe, is one of longest of the entire year, and unique in its arrangement. The responsory proper is divided into four parts, where two is standard, and three is rare; the second, third and fourth part are repeated after three different psalm verses, followed by the doxology and then the repetition of the whole first section. The Roman breviary also gives it a special significance by using it only once, where normally the responsories of a Sunday are repeated during the week. (In some other Uses, e.g. those of the Dominicans and Cistercians, it is repeated during the week, but in a shortened form.)

℟. Aspiciens a longe, ecce vídeo Dei potentiam venientem, et nébulam totam terram tegentem: * ite obviam ei, et dícite: * Nuntia nobis, si tu es ipse, * qui regnatúrus es in pópulo Israël.
℣. Quique terrígenæ, et filii hóminum, simul in unum dives et pauper: ite obviam et, et dícite.
℣. Qui regis Israël, intende, qui dedúcis velut ovem Joseph: nuntia nobis, si tu es ipse.
℣. Tóllite portas, príncipes, vestras, et elevámini portæ æternáles, et introíbit Rex gloriæ, qui regnatúrus es in pópulo Israël.
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.
℟. Aspiciens a longe, ecce vídeo Dei potentiam venientem, et nébulam totam terram tegentem: ite obviam ei, et dícite: Nuntia nobis, si tu es ipse, qui regnatúrus es in pópulo Israël.

℟. Looking from afar, behold I see the power of God coming, and a cloud covering all the land: * go ye to meet him and say: * Tell us if thou art the one, * who art to rule in the people of Israel.
℣. All you that are earthborn, and you sons of men: both rich and poor together, go ye out to meet him and say.
℣. Give ear, O thou that rulest Israel: thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep; tell us if thou art the one.
℣. Lift up your gates, O ye princes, and be ye lifted up, O eternal gates: and the King of Glory shall enter in, who art to rule in the people of Israel.
Glory be unto the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Looking from afar, behold I see the power of God coming, and a cloud covering all the land: go ye to meet him and say: tell us if thou art the one, who art to rule in the people of Israel.

Today, I stumbled across this image from an antiphonary produced in central Italy (Umbria or Tuscany) in the first half of the forteenth century, with a particularly splendid initial A for the beginning of this text. (Public domain image from the website of the Cleveland Museum of Art; click to enlarge.)

Within the initial A, Christ descends from heaven (indicated by the mandorla around Him), surrounded by angels, with three more groups of them in the margin above to and to either side. Beneath Him within the A are twelve figures with halos, and twelve more in the margins to either side of the first bar of music, the twenty-four elders mentioned in the Apocalypse. Within the curlicues at the bottom of the A are Isaiah on the left, holding a scroll on which is written “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son” (7, 14); on the right, Zachariah, whose scroll reads “The Lord shall come with all his Saints.” (14, 5). Above the A is depicted the Annunciation, with the Angel Gabriel on the left, and the Virgin Mary on the right; at the bottom, angels announce the coming of Christ to the Fathers in the Limbo. In the bottom margin, a group of clerics, monks or friars (sadly rather damaged) stand singing at a lectern, our ancestors in the Faith with whom we pray these very same words.

The First Sunday of Advent 2024

Gregorius praesul, méritis et nómine dignus, unde genus ducit, summum conscendit honórem; renovávit monumenta patrum priórum, tunc compósuit hunc libellum músicae artis scholae cantórum anni círculi. Eia dic, domne, eia: Ad te levávi ánimam meam: Deus meus, in te confído, non erubescam: neque irrídeant me inimíci mei: étenim universi, qui te exspectant, non confundéntur. Ps. 24 Vias tuas, Dómine, demonstra mihi: et sémitas tuas édoce me. Gloria Patri. Sicut erat. Ad te levávi. (The introit of the First Sunday of Advent, with an introductory trope. The text of the trope sung in the video is slightly different from the one given here; explanation below.)

Gregory the bishop, worthy by his merits and the name from which his lineage came, ascended to the the highest honour; he renewed the monuments of earlier fathers, then he composed this little book of musical art for the school of singers for the cycle of the year. Come now, master, come and sing! To Thee I have lifted up my soul: my God, in Thee do I trust; let me not be put to shame; nor let my enemies deride me, for all they that await Thee shall not be put to shame. Ps. 24 Show me Thy ways, O Lord, and teach me Thy paths. Glory be. As it was. To Thee...

St Gregory dictating to a scribe, an illustration at the beginning of the winter volume of the Codex Hartker, one of the oldest surviving antiphonaries of the Divine Office, ca. 990-1000. (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 390: https://www.e-codices.ch/en/list/one/csg/0390. CC BY-NC 4.0)

The Latin word “Eia” is an expression of joy, and like many exclamations, difficult to translate; it is sometime rendered “come” or “come on”, as an exhortation to join in something happy. “Domne” is a medieval variant of “Domine”, the vocative of “Dominus - Lord”, commonly used when speaking to a religious superior, as in “Jube, domne, benedicere - pray, lord, the blessing.” In this case, it represents the members of the schola urging the master of the choir to intone the Introit.

In the recording, the words at the end of the trope “Eia dic, domne, eia” are replaced with a variant text “Eia parabolista, dicunt psalmista.” This variant is recorded in the Analecta hymnica (XLIX, p. 20) in a footnote to this version of the trope Gregorius praesul, with “(!)”, incidating that the reading is surprising for being basically unintelligible. The word “parabolista” seems to be a variant of “paraphonista - chorister.”