In the season after Epiphany, the texts of the Matins responsories are all taken from the book of Psalms, rather than from the Epistles of St Paul with which they are read. This group of responsories is unusual in that there are separate ones for each day of the week (a total of 24 originally), where normally, there are between 8-12, enough to occupy Sunday, often Monday, and sometimes Tuesday, after which they simply are repeated in order through the rest of the week.
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| The responsories given below in the winter volume of the Codex Hartker, a monastic antiphonary copied out at the abbey of St Gall in Switzerland, in or around the last decade of the 10th century. (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 390, p. 84-85, cropped and joined; CC BY-NC 4.0) |
R. Afflicti pro peccatis nostris, quotidie cum lacrimis exspectemus finem nostrum; dolor cordis nostri ascendat ad te, Domine, * ut eruas nos a malis quae innovantur in nobis. V. Domine Deus Israel, exaudi preces nostras, auribus percipe dolorem cordis nostri. Ut eruas...
R. Afflicted for our sins, daily with tears let us await our end; let the grief of our heart ascend to Thee, o Lord, that thou mayest deliver us from the evil which are renewed in us. V. O Lord, God of Israel, hear our prayers, hearken unto the grief of our heart. That thou mayest deliver us…
This text was also set in polyphony by William Byrd; here it is performed by British vocal ensemble The Gesualdo Six.
The second responsory is also an ecclesiastical composition, but the verse is taken from an Old Latin version of Psalm 50.
R. Peccata mea, Domine, sicut sagittae infixa sunt in me; sed antequam vulnera generent in me; * sana me, Domine, medicamento paenitentiae, Deus. V. Quoniam iniquitatem meam ego cognosco, et delictum meum coram me est semper, quia tibi soli peccavi. Sed…
There are no Gregorian recordings of this one available on YouTube, but three very nice polyphonic ones. The first, by the Franco-Flemish composer Nicholas Gombert (1495 ca. - 1560 ca.) is here sung by an Austrian group called Beauty Farm, whose name and graphics both look like they were nicked from an ’80s alternative band, but they sing splendidly well.
R. My sins, o Lord, like arrows are fixed in me; but before they beget wounds within me, * heal me, o Lord God, with the medicine of penance. V. For I know my iniquity, and my crime is always before me, because to thee only have I sinned. But heal…
The second is by a contemporary of Gombert, Adrian Willaert (1490 ca. - 1562), who after working in various parts of Italy, spent the last 35 years of his life directing the music at the basilica of St Mark in Venice (then the “private” chapel of the doges, not the cathedral.) A story is told that when he arrived in Rome as a young man of about 25, he found that the choir of the Sistine Chapel was using one of his works, in the belief that it was by Josquin des Prez. It speaks very well indeed of his talent that his music could be mistaken for that of so great a composer as Josquin, but the members of the choir refused to perform it any more once they learned who the real author was.
The third setting is by the Neapolitan Giovanni Domenico Montella (1570 ca. - before July of 1607), a prolific composer who also worked as a lutenist in the court of the Spanish viceroy in his native city.
The third responsory was apparently never as widely used as the first two; it is not included in any of the currently used monastic offices, and no recording seems to be available.
R. Abscondi tamquam aurum peccata mea, et celavi in sinu meo iniquitatem meam. * Miserere mei, Deus, secundum magnam misericordiam tuam. V. Quoniam iniquitatem meam ego cognosco, et delictum meum coram me est semper, quia tibi soli peccavi. Miserere…
R. I have hidden my sins like gold, and concealed my iniquity in my bosom; * Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy great mercy. V. For I know my iniquity, and my crime is always before me, because to thee only have I sinned. Have mercy…
