Asperges me - use of the other tones "ad libitum"
  • For the Asperges, besides the commonly used mode 7 tone, the books provide for use "ad libitum" a simpler mode 7 tone, as well as a mode 4 tone.

    When [for what occasions / reasons] does anybody use these?

    Is there any particular history behind them, or anything else useful to know about them?
  • P.S. I have also not been able to find any recording of the simple mode 7 version, although the mode 4 can be found on YouTube.
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 2,400
    I imagine that the simpler mode 7 chant is just an older, less elaborate version of the other. (I don't have my graduale with me, so I can't check if there are any dates printed.) The mode 4 is probably a version from a mediaeval source that Pothier & Co. liked when they put the new books together---IIRC, the old Medici/Ratisbon Gradual only had the one mode 7 setting. This aren't facts, they're just educated guesses.

    And like all the ad libitum chants, they are there to be used when you feel like it, there are no hard and fast rules about which chants to use when.
  • I know I've seen the simple mode VII used in the Pontificale Romanum. I believe it's used a time or two in the blessing of certain objects, but I'm not too sure about that.
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 1,344
    Triplex gives XIII s. for the usual mode 7 tone (ed Vat I); X s. for the simpler (ed Vat II); and XII s. for the mode 4 tune (ed Vat III). The last is the only one with neumes, from Mont-Blandin.
  • John Schauble and the Holy Family Choir of Dayton, OH regularly use the simple tones for Advent and Lent, respectively. Can't remember which for which, though.
  • Occasionally (and primarily at the request of the priest celebrant) we use the simpler mode VII tone during the purple seasons.

    The mode IV tone seems especially appropriate when the Introit is in the same mode.
  • I hope this won't be treated as an off-topic question, but is there a legitimate way to lengthen the Asperges, say, by the use of a second verse?
  • VilyanorVilyanor
    Posts: 362
    As a corollary, is there ever anything against adding psalm verses? Couldn't one add psalm verses to the Asperges as to the Introit or the Communion? Or is there something against that?
  • Adding psalm verses to the Asperges (or Vidi aquam): yes, this is possible. Although the Graduale Romanum doesn't mention anything about the number of psalm verses, the Graduale Simplex does:

    Et repetitur antiphona, pro opportunitate, post unumquemque versiculum psalmi 50, p. 86

    So, the antiphon can be repeated after each of the verses of Psalm 51(50). For the Easter Season this is Psalm 118(117).
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 1,224
    You could also sing the Gloria Patri separately in the Sarum fashion.
    Thanked by 2Ben Yanke CCooze
  • CCoozeCCooze
    Posts: 728
    As far as extending the Asperges, one could also pick and choose which parts to have polyphonic, perhaps?
    If it is that you know you always need it lengthened, you could do just the repeated antiphon as polyphony. If you are simply getting to the Gloria Patri and realizing you are going to need extra time, you could add a polyphonic GP, and maybe also the antiphon, as well...
    Choosing a setting based on/interspersed with chant could certainly help with the necessary picking/choosing.

    For example:
  • Corinne,

    What a wonderful idea! I don't know if I'll ever get to use it, but I had no idea that it existed, so that added knowledge has enriched my love of the liturgy and the treasury of Sacred Music.