In most places, Matins as well as Lauds of these days were normally anticipated on the evening of the preceding day and were celebrated on Wednesday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, respectively. The 1955 reform of the Holy Week ceremonies by Pope Pius XII, redefining Triduum Sacrum to include Easter Sunday and take in only the close of Maundy Thursday, moved them to Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. Tenebrae as such was not included in the 1970 Liturgy of the Hours, vanishing altogether around 1977. Summorum Pontificum (2007) now permits clerics bound to recitation of the Divine Office to use the 1961 Roman Breviary.[1][2]
Over the three days, therefore, the responsories, like the readings, came to a total of 27. Since the polyphonic Lamentations were an important musical genre in their own right, many collections (such as Victoria'sOfficium Hebdomadae sanctae 1585) include only the 18 Responsories of the second and third nocturns. Gesualdo, who set all 27, also includes a Miserere and Benedictus for Lauds, and a few composers (Fabrizio Dentice and Tiburtio Massaino) set these last three times each, one setting for each day.
Maundy Thursday responsories
Maundy Thursday is called in Latin Feria V/Quinta in Cena Domini (an older spelling has Coena instead of Cena), meaning Thursday (fifth day of the week) of the Lord's Supper. Compositions for its nine responsories can therefore appear under such titles as Feria V – In Coena Domini. They can also be named by the day on which they were actually sung, as Charpentier's Les neuf répons du mercredi saint ("The nine responsories of Holy Wednesday").
Responsories of the first nocturn of Maundy Thursday
The three readings of the first nocturn of Maundy Thursday are Lamentations 1:1–5, 1:6–9 and 1:10–14.
The second responsory represents Jesus speaking to his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane. The first two lines of the responsory are Matthew 26:38. The last two lines of are more freely based on different Gospel passages, including Mark 14:50 and Luke 24:7.[4]
Settings of this responsory include a motet by Orlande de Lassus, appearing as No. 1 in the Drexel 4302 manuscript, a SSATB motet attributed to Johann Kuhnau, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, 2 settings: Second répons après la seconde leçon du premier nocturne, H.112 (1680), for 2 voices and continuo and Second répons après la seconde leçon du premier nocturne du Mercredi Saint, H.126 (1690), for 2 voices and continuo and a setting as part of Francis Poulenc's Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence.
Responsories of the second nocturn of Maundy Thursday
The readings of the second nocturn of Maundy Thursday are from Saint Augustine's commentary on Psalm 54/55
Amicus meus
Troisième répons après la troisième leçon du premier nocturne, H.113 (1680), for 1 voice and continuo
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Premier répons après la première leçon du second nocturne du Mercredi Saint, H.127 (1690), for 1 voice , 2 flutes and continuo
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Quatrième répons après la première leçon du second nocturne, H.114 (1680), for 2 voices and continuo
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Troisième répons après la troisième leçon du second nocturne du Mercredi Saint, H.132 (1690), for 1 voice, 2 violins and continuo
Good Friday, Feria VI/Sexta in Parasceve, meaning Friday (sixth day of the week) of the Day of Preparation (from Greek Παρασκευή). Thus this second set of nine responsories can appear under such titles as Feria VI – In Parasceve.
Responsories of the first nocturn of Good Friday
The readings of the first nocturn of Good Friday are Lamentations 2:8–11, 2:12–15 and 3:1–9.
Omnes amici mei
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Répons après la première leçon de ténèbres du Jeudi Saint, H.144 (mid1690), for 1 voice, 2 flutes and continuo
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Second répons après la seconde leçon du premier nocturne du Jeudi Saint, H.128, for soloists, chorus, flutes, strings and continuo (1690)
The readings of the second nocturn of Good Friday are from Saint Augustine's commentary on Psalm 63/64
Tamquam ad latronem existis
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Premier répons après la première leçon du second nocturne du Jeudi Saint, H.133 (1690), for 1 voice, 2 flutes,, 2 violins and continuo
This responsory is included on p. 269 of the Lutheran Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch (1682). Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Second répons après la seconde leçon du second nocturne du Jeudi Saint, for 1 voice, flutes, strings and continuo, H.129 (1690).Third of Poulenc's Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence, and fifth of his Sept répons des ténèbres
Holy Saturday, Sabbato Sancto in Latin. Responsories for this day can appear under such titles as Sabbato Sancto.
Responsories of the first nocturn of Holy Saturday
The readings of the first nocturn of Holy Saturday are from Lamentations, 3:22–30, 4:1–6 and 5:1–11.
Sicut ovis
Responsorium:
Sicut ovis ad occisionem ductus est,
Et dum male tractaretur, non aperuit os suum :
Traditus est ad mortem ut vivificaret populum suum.
Versus:
Tradidit in mortem animam suam,
Et inter sceleratos reputatus est.
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Second répons après la seconde leçon du premier nocturne de Vendredi Saint, H.130 (1690), for 2 voices, 2 flutes and continuo
This responsory has some parallels with the Book of Joel, e.g. "plange quasi virgo" ("Lament like a girl", 1:8), "accingite vos et plangite sacerdotes ululate ministri altaris" ("Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests; Wail, you ministers of the altar", 1:13) and "magnus enim dies Domini et terribilis valde" ("for the day of Yahweh is great and very awesome", 2:11).
Responsorium:
Plange quasi virgo, plebs mea.
Ululate pastores, in cinere et cilicio,
Quia veniet Dies Domini Magna
Et amara valde.
Versus:
Accingite vos, sacerdotes, et plangite,
Ministri altaris, aspergite vos cinere.
The text is adapted from the LatinVulgate translation of Lamentations 1:12. Some of the most famous settings of the text are by Tomás Luis de Victoria (two settings for four voices: 1572 and 1585), Carlo Gesualdo (five voices: 1603; six voices: 1611), Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Second répons après la 1ère leçon du second nocturne du Vendredi saint, H.134, for 1 voice, flutes and continuo (1690) and Pablo Casals (mixed choir: 1932).
Based on Isaiah 57:1–2. A german version of the text of this responsory is set as Der Gerechte kömmt um. Poulenc set it as the seventh of his Sept répons des ténèbres.
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Troisième répons après la troisième leçon du second nocturne du Vendredi Saint, H.131 (1690), for 1 voice, muted strings and continuo
