The Tract for Lent 4: Qui confidunt in Domino

Here's a (partial) mp3 of this chant from JoguesChant, with the Latin chant score and their English translation below:

Here's a video of the whole thing:



The YouTube blurb says this, in Portuguese:

Ensaio do coro Instituto Gregoriano de Lisboa, gentilmente cedido. Gratias Instituto Gregoriano Olissiponensi quarum voces audiuntur.

The text for this tract is taken from Psalm 125, another of the "Songs of Ascents."

Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion; the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall never be shaken. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people, from this time forth and for evermore.

Here's an explanation from Chabad.org about the "Songs of Ascents":

Question: Why do certain psalms begin with the words, "A song of ascents"? What sort of ascent is this referring to?

Answer: Fifteen psalms, chapters 120-134 of the Book of Psalms, begin with the words, "A song of ascents."

Many interpretations have been given for these ambiguous words. Here are a few of them:

a) In the Holy Temple courtyard, there was an ultra wide stairway that consisted of fifteen large, semi-circular steps that "ascended" into the inner section of the courtyard. The Levites, whose job it was to accompany the Temple service with song and instrumental music, would stand on these steps and sing these fifteen psalms.

b) These psalms were sung on a high "ascendant" musical note.

c) These psalms were sung starting in a low tone of voice and steadily ascending to a higher one.

d) These psalms were sung by the Jews who ascended from Babylon to Israel in the times of Ezra the Scribe.

e) These psalms were sung by the Jews when they would "ascend" to visit the Holy Temple three times annually for the festivals.

f) These psalms praise, exult and "elevate" G‑d.

g) The Talmud gives an aggadaic explanation:

"When King David was digging the Shitin [a stream that ran beneath the Holy Temple, into which the wine libations were poured], the water of the depths arose and threatened to flood the world. David said, 'Is there someone who knows whether it is permitted to write [G‑d's] name on an earthenware shard and we will throw it into the depths and it will subside?' . . . Ahitophel responded, 'It is permitted.' [David] wrote the name on earthenware and threw it into the depths. The depths receded 16,000 cubits. When he saw that it receded greatly, he said, 'The higher the depths, the moister is the ground [which benefits agriculture].' He said the fifteen [songs of] ascents, and the depths rose 15,000 cubits."

Rabbi Naftali Silberberg,
Chabad.org editorial team

And here's the Wikipedia entry for "Songs of Ascents".  That article points out about Eastern Christianity that:

In the Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches which follow the Byzantine Rite, the Songs of Degrees (Greek: anabathmoi) make up the Eighteenth Kathisma (division of the Psalter), and are read on Friday evenings at Vespers throughout the liturgical year. The Kathisma is divided into three sections (called stases) of five psalms each.

During Great Lent the Eighteenth Kathisma is read every weekday (Monday through Friday evening) at Vespers, and on Monday through Wednesday of Holy Week. In the Slavic usage this Kathisma is also read from the apodosis of the Exaltation of the Cross up to the forefeast of the Nativity of Christ, and from the apodosis of Theophany up to the Sunday of the Prodigal Son. The reason for this is that the nights are longer in winter, especially in the northern latitudes, so during this season three Kathismas will be chanted at Matins instead of two, so in order to still have a reading from the Psalter at Vespers, the Eighteenth Kathisma is repeated.

In the West, the Tracts for the last three Sundays in Lent are all taken from the "Songs of Ascents," both now and in the past (via the "Extraordinary Form"). Also:

The Western Daily Office was strongly influenced by the Rule of St. Benedict, where these psalms are assigned to Terce, Sext and None on weekdays.

[EDIT: Derek points out via comments that:

The Songs of Ascent are also known as the gradual psalms in the West given the Latin translation of the title (canticum graduum). They became a standard part of the medieval prymers based on earlier early medieval monastic practice. Ardo's life of Benedict of Aniane tells how he had his monks chant the 15 gradual psalms before Matins, five for the living faithful, five for the faithful departed, five for the recently departed.

There was also a Marian connection here because in the apocryphal materials on Mary's early life she sang these psalms when she was dedicated to the Temple. So--in the West, these got tied into two of their favorite themes: Mary and the dead. ]

Here's another version of this Tract, sung by The Florida Schola Cantorum, at the Eglise de la Madeleine in Paris on March 29, 2011, it says.



And here is a polyphonic version from the late 16th or early 17th Century, with the YouTube description below:

Qui confidunt in Domino by Kryštof Harant z Polžic a Bezdružic [1564-1621] as performed by the Prague Chamber Choir in concert conducted by Jaroslav Brych.