Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae (The Holy Week Office): Tomás Luis de Victoria

This is quite amazing; a complete - I think so, anyway; it's 2.5+ hours of music - recording of this work by Victoria. 



Victoria wrote this piece in or around 1585.   The YouTuber includes the following credits:

Coro de monjes del Monasterio de Santo Domingo de Silos
Coro de voces blancas de Burgos
Concertador: Dom Felipe Fernández, O.S.B.
Director: Ismael Fernandez de la Cuesta.

Below is the (partial, it seems) track list from the above page; the first part is from Palm Sunday - and most of the rest comes from Matins of Maundy Thurday (In Coena Domini), Good Friday (Parasceve), and Holy Saturday (Sabbato Sancto).

In other words, the greatest part of this music was written for the Office of Tenebrae - Matins and Lauds of the great Three Days.   Included, too, are readings (including some from the Lamentations of Jeremiah), antiphons, responsories, hymns, and pieces from John's Passion and the Adoration of the Cross on Good Friday.

To follow along with the Matins sections, use Divinum Officium; enter the date at the top of the page, then click "Matutinum" at the bottom.  You can listen to St. Thomas' Tenebrae sung in plainsong here.

Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae- S.XVI. ( Integral)

I DOMINICA IN RAMIS PALMARUM

Pueri Hebraeorum

II FERIA V IN COENA DOMINI

In I Nocturno ( Lectiones I,II,III )
In II Nocturno ( Lectiones et Responsoria:
IV " Amicus meus",V " Judas mercator"
VI " Unus ex discipulis" )
Lector: Francisco Lara

In III Nocturno ( Lectiones et Responsoria:
VII " Eran quasi Agnus", VIII "Una Hora"
IX " Seniores populi "
Lector: Dom Pedro Alonso, O.S.B.
Benedictus Dominus
Lectores: Dom Baudilio López O.S.B. y
Francisco Lara ( Primer coro)- Dom Jose Luis Angulo, O.S.B.
y Dom Constancio del Alamo, O.S.B. ( segundo Coro)

III FERIA VI PARASCEVE ( principio )

In I Nocturno ( Lectiones I, II, III ).......
In II Nocturno ( Lectiones et Responsalia:
IV " Tamquam ad latronem", V " Tenebrae factae sunt", VI " Animam meam" )
Lector: Francisco Lara
In III Nocturno ( Lectiones y Responsoria:
VII " Tradiderunt me", VIII " Jesum tradidit",
IX " Caligaverunt" )
Lector: Dom Pedro Alonso, O.S.B.

III FERIA VI IN PARASCEVE ( final)

Passio secundum Joannem ....
Sinagoga: Francisco Lara
Cronista y Jesucristo:
Ismael Fernández de la Cuesta
Improperia: " Popule meus"......
Soprano: Hermana Maria Begoña Martínez
Contralto: Hermana, Maria Lourdes Gabilondo
Tenor: Francisco Lara
Bajo: Dom Constancio del Alamo, O.S.B.

IV SABBATO SANCTO

In I Nocturno ( Lectiones I, II, III )
In II Nocturno ( Lectiones et Responsoria:
IV " Recessit pastor nortes", V " O vos omnes",
VI " Ecce quomodo" )...........
In III Nocturno ( Lectiones et Responsoria:
VII " Astiterunt", VIII " Aestimatus sum",
IX " Sepulto Domino")...........
Miserere mei, Deus

Palestrina's "Lamentations of Jeremiah"

Via the Hilliard Ensemble; lovely. The Lamentations are sung in plainchant as part of Holy Week's Office of Tenebrae, sung at Mattins and Lauds on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday; see Breviary.net for the full Office, beginning with Maundy Thursday.  (Here is the Episcopal Church's liturgy for the single-service version of Tenebrae, from The Book of Occasional Services.)

The Palestrina here is broken into the three videos below, as the Lamentations would be sung at the three separate services (although a few sections are missing here); the YouTube blurb is below each video, and the complete Lamentations in English at the end of the post.

Incipit : Aleph : Beth (Maundy Thursday, Lesson 1)

Incipit lamentatio Ieremiae prophetae.

ALEPH Quomodo sedet sola civitas plena populo: Facta est quasi vidua domina Gentium: Princeps provinciarum facta est sub tributo.

BETH Plorans ploravit in nocte, et lacrimae eius in maxillis eius: Non est qui consoletur eam ex omnibus caris eius: Omnes amici eius spreverunt eam, et facti sunt ei inimici.

Ierusalem, Ierusalem, convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum.

Heth : Teth : Iod (Good Friday, Lesson 1)

HETH Cogitavit Dominus dissipare murum filiae Sion: tetendit funiculum suum, et non avertit manum suam a perdtione: Iuxitque antemuraele, et murus pariter dissipatus est.

TETH Defixae sunt in terra portae eius: perdidit, et contrivit vectes eius: Regem eius et principes eius in gentibus: non est lex, et prophetae eius non invenerunt visionem a Domino.

IOD Sederunt in terra, conticuerunt senes filiae Sion: consperserunt cinere capita sua, accincti sunt ciliciis, abiecerunt in terram capita sua virgines Iuda.

Ierusalem, Ierusalem, convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum.

Lamed : Mem : Nun (Good Friday, Lesson 2)

LAMED Matribus suis dixerunt: Ubi est triticum et vinum? Cum deficerent quasi vulnerati in plateis civitatis: cum exhalarent animas suas in sinu matrum suarum.

MEM Cu comparabo te? Vel cui assimilabo te, filia Ierusalem? Cui exaequabo te, et consolabor te, virgo filia Sion? Magna est enim velut mare contritio tua: quis medebitur tui?

NUN Prophetae tui viderunt tibi falsa et stulta, nec aperiebant iniquitatem tuam, ut te ad paenitentiam provocarent: viderunt autem tibi assumptiones falsas, et eiectiones.

Ierusalem, Ierusalem, convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum.

 Here are the Lamentations in English (taken from the St. Thomas leaflet).  The initial words (Aleph, Beth, Ghimel, etc.), are letters of the Hebrew alphabet; Lamentations make up another Biblical acrostic.

LESSON 1 Lamentations of Jeremiah 1:1-14

Aleph. How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! how is she become as a widow! She that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!

Beth. She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.

Ghimel. Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest: all her persecutors overtook her between the straits.

Daleth. The ways of Sion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.

He. Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, return unto the Lord thy God!


LESSON 2

Vau. From the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.

Zain. Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries, all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hands of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.

Heth. Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.

Teth. Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end; therefore she came down  wonderfully: she had no comforter: O Lord, behold my affliction: for the enemy hath magnified himself.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, return unto the Lord thy God!


LESSON 3

Jod. The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things; for she hath seen that  the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.

Caph. All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to  relieve the soul: see, O Lord, and consider; for I am become vile.

Lamed. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto  my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce  anger.

Mem. From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread  a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate and faint all the day.

Nun. The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon  my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, return unto the Lord thy God!

From Saint Thomas Church: The Office of Tenebrae

Saint Thomas Church will webcast the Office of Tenebrae this evening at 5:30; this is always a stunningly beautiful service.  [EDIT:  That link is from last year, but you can now listen to St. Thomas' 2013 Tenebrae, sung on March 27.]

This service anticipates the monastic offices for the last three days of Holy Week. Tenebrae means "shadows" and refers to the gradual extinguishing of candles and lights as the service proceeds, until only one candle remains.

As the people enter the church before the service begins, they see in the chancel seven candles glowing brightly. The altar candles, too, are lit, though the candles are made of non-bleached beeswax, just as we use at funerals.

The Order of Service proceeds as follows:

The ministers enter in silence and proceed to their places. Three acolytes, who at almost all other services would be carrying a cross and two torches, walk ahead of the ministers, empty-handed.


The choir and cantors then progress through a series of antiphons and Psalms. At the end of Psalm 69, the first candle is extinguished. At the end of Psalm 70, the second. At the end of the Psalm 74, the third. As each candle is snuffed out, the lights high above the congregation are dimmed a bit more.

Then comes a period where the lights remain as they are: the Lord's Prayer is said, and a series of three lessons and three responsories are sung.

This is followed by the Lauds, another series of antiphons and Psalms during which three more candles are extinguished (after Psalm 63, after the Song of Moses, and after Psalm 150). Now, the nave of the church is very near dark, as the lights have been dimmed even further.

Near the end of the canticle, acolytes emerge to extinguish the altar candles, leaving only the seventh candle lit.

During the repetition of the antiphon after the canticle, the Verger climbs a ladder, removes the candle, and as the choir sings the motet, she takes it toward the High Altar, through the Sanctuary gate, and then hides it in a small room hidden behind the door to the north side of the High Altar.

The congregation says the Lord's Prayer and the choir sings the Miserere.

The Officiant says a prayer and adds (whispering to himself under his breath): "...who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

A loud sound fills the church. Christ is dead. The organ is outraged; the choristers beat their books against their stalls.

Then, in complete silence, the candle emerges from its hiding place. It is returned to its place high above the chancel. By its light all leave in silence.

Officiant:	Fr Mead
Sung by:	The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys
Psalms for Tenebrae:	Plainsong
The Lamentations of Jeremiah:	Plainsong
Christus factus est:	Felice Anerio, (c. 1560-1614)
Miserere mei, Deus:	Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652)

Here's the service leaflet, in PDF.

New York Polyphony, et al.: Lamentations of Jeremiah, Part II

This is New York Polyphony: "Lamentations of Jeremiah: Jerusalem by Thomas Crecquillon." Gorgeous.



This is "J.D. Zelenka: Lamentations of Jeremiah - Lamentations for Maundy Thursday."



And this is "Very fine recording of the "Heth" and "Caph" chapters from Antoine Brumel's Lamentations of Jeremiah. Brumel was a French Composer who lived from c.1460 to c.1515."

New York Polyphony, et al.: Lamentations of Jeremiah, Part I

Here is New York Polyphony singing "Lamentations of Jeremiah for Maundy Thursday." Unfortunately, it doesn't say whose! I think Palestrina, though. [EDIT: No, not. Luis, in the comments, doubted this - and he was right; the Lamentations here are from Thomas Crecquillon, says the listing (see full text in the comments). The same concert, then, probably, as that in video #3 below. Thanks, Luis.] The blurb says "My End is My Beginning at The Church of the Ascension, New York City, 5 November 2009."




This seems to be from the same concert; the blurb says "Bora Yoon performs with New York Polyphony, The Church of the Ascension, New York, 5 November 2009." And also that "note: the repetitive "static" you hear is part of Bora Yoon's improvisation." Haunting, really.




This is New York polyphony, too: "Lamentations of Jeremiah: Jerusalem by Thomas Crecquillon."

Saint Thomas Church - Music - Choral Services - The Office of Tenebrae

Saint Thomas Church - Music - Choral Services - The Office of Tenebrae

The one-evening version; very beautiful, and fresh tonight.  The PDF of the leaflet is here.

Palestrina: Music for Maundy Thursday

These videos contain Palestrina's settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, passages which are read or sung during the Holy Week Office of Tenebrae; that Office is here, at Breviary.net, which calls Tenebrae "Matins and Lauds of the Office of Darkness." Tenebrae these days begins on Wednesday of Holy Week (i.e., the eve of the day to which it actually belongs), and is usually said or sung in the early evening; Matins and Lauds were middle-of-the-night services in the monastery.

On this and the two following nights Matins and Lauds are always said together, and these Three Services are commonly called the Three Nights of Darkness. In Choir six lights are lighted upon the Altar, and fifteen (seven on each side and one at the top) in a triangle-shaped candlestick before the Epistle corner. As each Antiphon is repeated the second time, one of the fifteen candles is put out.

The Antiphons are all doubled, and the Doxology Gloria Patri is everywhere omitted.

There are 10 YouTube videos of the Palestrina music; they are coded so that one follows the last. They're very beautiful.  Some of the videos contain Gregorian responsories not part of the book of Lamentations. The words of Lamentations itself in Latin and English are here, at Choral Public Domain Library.

Here's just Chapter 1 in English:

1:1 ALEPH. How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the cities has become a vassal.

1:2 BETH. She weeps bitterly in the night, tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.

1:3 GHIMEL. Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and hard servitude; she dwells now among the nations, but finds no resting place; her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress.

1:4 DALETH. The roads to Zion mourn, for none come to the appointed feasts; all her gates are desolate, her priests groan; her maidens have been dragged away, and she herself suffers bitterly.

1:5 HE. Her foes have become the head, her enemies prosper, because the LORD has made her suffer for the multitude of her transgressions; her children have gone away, captives before the foe.

1:6 VAU. From the daughter of Zion has departed all her majesty. Her princes have become like harts that find no pasture; they fled without strength before the pursuer.

1:7 ZAIN. Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and bitterness all the precious things that were hers from days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the foe, and there was none to help her, the foe gloated over her, mocking at her downfall.

1:8 HETH. Jerusalem sinned grievously, therefore she became filthy; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; yea, she herself groans, and turns her face away.

1:9 Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her doom; therefore her fall is terrible, she has no comforter. "O LORD, behold my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!"

1:10 IOD. The enemy has stretched out his hands over all her precious things; yea, she has seen the nations invade her sanctuary, those whom thou didst forbid to enter thy congregation.

1:11 CAPH. All her people groan as they search for bread; they trade their treasures for food to revive their strength. "Look, O LORD, and behold, for I am despised."

1:12 LAMED. "Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow which was brought upon me, which the LORD inflicted on the day of his fierce anger."

1:13 MEM. "From on high he sent fire; into my bones he made it descend; he spread a net for my feet; he turned me back; he has left me stunned, faint all the day long.

The capitalized words are Hebrew letters; Lamentations is another Old Testament acrostic. Here's CPDL on Lamentations.

Lamentationes Ieremiae (English Lamentations of Jeremiah)

In the Greek and Latin Bibles there are five songs of lament bearing the name of Jeremiah, which follow the Book of the Prophecy of Jeremias. In the Hebrew these are entitled Kinôth. from their elegiac character, or the 'Ekhah songs after the first word of the first, second, and fourth elegies; in Greek they are called Threnoi, in Latin they are known as Lamentationes. The superscription to Lamentations in the Septuagint and other versions throws light on the historical occasion of their production and on the author: "And it came to pass, after Israel was carried into captivity, and Jerusalem was desolate, that Jeremiah the prophet sat weeping, and mourned with this lamentation over Jerusalem, and with a sorrowful mind, sighing and moaning, he said:".

To a man like Jeremiah, the day on which Jerusalem became a heap of ruins was not only a day of national misfortune, for, in a religious sense, Jerusalem had a peculiar importance in the history of salvation, as the footstool of Jahweh and as the scene of the revelation of God and of the Messias. Consequently, the grief of Jeremiah was personal, not merely a sympathetic emotion over the sorrow of others, for he had sought to prevent the disaster by his labours as a prophet in the streets of the city. All the fibres of his heart were bound up with Jerusalem; he was now himself crushed and desolate.

In all five elegies the construction of the verses follows an alphabetical arrangement. The first, second, fourth, and fifth laments are each composed of twenty-two verses, to correspond with the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet; the third lament is made up of three times twenty-two verses. In the first, second, and fourth elegies each verse begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the letters following in order, as the first verse begins with ALEPH, the second with BETH etc.

The Lamentations have received a peculiar distinction in the Liturgy of the Church in the Office of Passion Week. If Christ Himself designated His death as the destruction of a temple, "he spoke of the temple of his body" (John 2:19-21), then the Church surely has a right to pour out her grief over His death in those Lamentations which were sung over the ruins of the temple destroyed by the sins of the nation.

You can also download a PDF of the Office of Tenebrae for Good Friday - in English - from the (Catholic) Archdiocese of St. Louis' Institute of Sacred Music (where there are many other fine resources generously offered for free).

Here's Rembrandt's "Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem":

The Introit for the Third Sunday in Lent: Oculi Mei ("My Eyes")

Here's an mp3 of this Introit from JoguesChant. Below is the score from the Brazilian Benedictines.

JoguesChant's translation, from Psalm 25:15-16, then 1-2:

My eyes are forever turned towards the Lord; for he shall release my feet from the snare; look upon me and have mercy on me, for I am abandoned and destitute. Unto you, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul; O my God, I trust in you, let me not be put to shame.

The Extraordinary Form uses the same Introit today. Soon, a post about what, exactly, the sources for the EF are (once I do a little research on the topic!).

The Collect for today is a great one:

Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Hatchett's Commentary has this about the collect:

In the Gregorian sacramentary this collect is appointed for the second Sunday in Lent (no. 202). Earlier that had been a "vacant" Sunday, a Sunday which had no proper because of the vigil and ordination mass which had been the culmination of the ember days preceding. In that sacramentary it is also printed among the "Daily Prayers" (no. 876). In the present Book it is shifted to the third Sunday in Lent from its earlier position in the Sarum missal and older Prayer Books on the second Sunday in Lent. The text reminds us that God's protection is necessary to defend us from the assaults upon the soul as well as those on the body.

The Gospel is a great one, too: John's telling of the story of the Samaritan woman at the well:

John 4:5-42

Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, `Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."

Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, `I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!" The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem." Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us." Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you."

Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with her?" Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?" They left the city and were on their way to him.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat something." But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?" Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, `Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, `One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I have ever done." So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."

Later in the season, during Holy Week, another "Oculi mei" - Caligaverunt oculi mei - will be sung, and with the reverse intention, as part of the Tenebrae resposories.

Caligaverunt oculi mei a fletu meo: quia elongatus est a me, qui consolabatur me: Videte, omnes populi, si est dolor similis sicut dolor meus. O vos omnes, qui transitis per viam, attendite, et videte si est dolor similis sicut dolor meus.

My eyes are darkened by my tears: For He is far from me that comforted Me:
See, O all ye people, if there be a sorrow like unto My sorrow. O all ye that pass by, behold and see if there be a sorrow like unto My sorrow.

Here's the Victoria version, again sung my recent discovery "The Sixteen":


Again I wonder if this sort of thing was done intentionally; "Oculi mei" from Psalm 25 early in Lent, and a song of confidence in God's protection in hard times - but then Holy Week turns this upside-down, and the "Oculi mei" for that week speaks of the feeling of utter desolation and the feeling of abandonment.

I need to learn much more about Tenebrae, I see now....

Here's Bernardo Strozzi's "Christ and the Samaritan Woman," from sometime in the early 1600s: