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Victoria’s Officium defunctorum

In document Space, time, tradition (Pldal 59-73)

The Officium defunctorum of Tomás Luis da Victoria and the Tradition of Masses for the Dead

3. Victoria’s Officium defunctorum

The Officium defunctorum of Victoria, published in Madrid in 1605, commemorated the widowed Spanish empress, who had died on 23 February 1603. On 19 March a vigil was sung for her in the abbey, for which four singers were brought from Toledo Cathedral. Diego de Urbina, governor of Madrid, issued a report stating that the vigil lasted from 2.30 to 5 p.m.19 It describes everything conscientiously, but fails to men-tion Victoria’s Officium defunctorum or even of its composer. So its first performance may have been given on a much more imposing occasion on 21–22 April, in the Jesuit Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, built in 1567.20

According to the Anales de Madrid, the Jesuit order, which the widowed empress had supported very generously, had decided beforehand to outdo all earlier efforts to honor her memory.21 The Office was sung by Don Tomás de Borja, the newly elect-ed archbishop of Saragossa. A Latin oration was said at the conclusion of Vespers by Fr. Luis de la Cerda. After Mass on the following day, the oration as delivered by Fr.

Jerónimo de Florencia, perhaps the most famous orator of the day.

From the moment it was decided to hold these ceremonies, the superiors of the Society ordered every father to write in accordance with his ability every kind of verse and composition in Her Majesty’s praise.22

Victoria’s intimacy with the Society began in 1565 or earlier. This was not disre-garded when a man responsible for the musical services was sought in Madrid.

In a long dedication to Princess Margaret, also associated with the Order, Victoria stated that Officium defunctorum was composed “for the funeral of the most sublime of mothers”. Here as in his 1600 dedication,23 he often makes Classical allusions. He praises the whole House of Austria, from Charles V downward, and lauds the Princess for choosing a monastic way of life. He calls this a Cygneam cantionem – swan song – not his, but that of the deceased Empress. Finally he expresses hope that the mercy of diving Providence will lengthen his days, so that he can serve the Empress with better works than this. The dedication is dated 13 June 1611.

19 Quoted by Felipe Pedrell, Tomás Luis de Victoria Abulense: Biografía, bibliografía (Valencia:

Manuel Villar, 1918), 142.

20 Today’s San Isidoro.

21 León Pinelo, Anales de Madrid: reinado de Felipe III, ed. Ricardo Martorell Téllez-Girón (Madrid:

Estanislao Maestre, 1931), 62. Jesuits in Spain and the Low Countries managed to say no less than 35,000 Masses for the soul of the Empress in the eight days after her death. See: Robert Murrell Stevenson, La música en las catedrales, 539.

22 Téllez-Girón (ed.), León Pinelo, 222.

23 Missae, Magnificat, Motecta, Psalmi (Madrid, 1600). The volume is dedicated to king Philip III.

To conclude the dedication is a Latin verse of 33 hexameters by Martín Pescenio, a fellow chaplain at Descalzas Reales, which explains the expression Cygneam cantio-nem. The verse concludes:

Victoria, you bewail our generous patron in so moving a sad song that Eurydice mourning Orpheus or the song of the dying swan or the sobs of Philomena spring to our mind. Continue for a long time to heap praise upon praise! Become another Timotheus of Miletus! Rise up like a swan, on wings granted by Apollo in accordance with your name, which fulfills his happy prophesy.

Victoria composed two Masses for the Dead, of which the first appeared in the 1583 volume of Masses, which included all five Masses he had published by 1576 and some hitherto unpublished works. The Missa pro defunctis of 1576 and the Officium defunc-torum of 1605 share many similar features. Both set to music the same texts, from the Mass for the Dead (the introit Requiem aeternam, the gradual Requiem aeturnam, the offertory Domine Jesu Christe, the communion Lux aeterna, and the Kyrie, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei). He gives the same key signatures for each movement (one flat for the introit and Kyrie, and none for the other movements). The order of the modes of the movements is the same (Ionic for the introit, Doric for the Kyrie, Mixolydian for the Benedictus, Agnus Dei, and communion, Aeolian for the gradual and Sanctus), while the intoned sections use the same Gregorian chant for the same texts. Also the same are the cadences of the movements and major intra-movement sections, although each movement of the 1605 work ends with a full triad, the earlier work ends most sections with a closing chord without a third (the introit versicle, the Kyrie, and the first section of the Sanctus being exceptions). The two works follow the same usage of parts, as both reduce the number of parts only for the Christe eleison piece of text in the Kyrie, by leaving out the bass in one case and the second tenor and bass in the other.

Differences appear in the choice of movements outside the Mass. Though both con-tain the responsory Libera me and the section Tremens factus sum ego in timeo even has identical music, the 1583 cycle appends two responsories to the Matins for the Dead (Peccantem me, Credo quod Redemptor), while the 1605 work attaches only one responsory (Versa est in luctum) and one lesson (Taedet animam meam).

As Victoria’s style becomes increasingly terse in the 1592 and 1600 books of Masses, so the 1605 whole Requiem and in its movements are shorter than those of 1583. The former has a gradual of 43+35 bars, an offertory of 133, and a Sanctus of 19+17, but the latter a gradual of 23+23 bars, an offertory of 78, and a Sanctus of 17+16. In the offer-tory of the Missa pro defunctis, the versicle Hostias et preces gives way to the Quam olim Abrahae repetenda in polyphony; the Officium defunctorum includes neither the versicle, nor the repetenda Quam olim Abrahae, in polyphonic or in Gregorian guise.

The 1583 work sets in parts all three Agnus Dei sections, while the later one prescribes polyphony only for the first and third sections of text.

The cantus firmus of both derives from the Mass for the Dead in the Graduale Romanum, but the 1583 cycle entrusts it to the treble (except for the first part of the Kyrie, where the bass sounds the Gregorian chant that appears in long note values) and the 1605, unusually, to the second treble (except for two sections: Christe eleison:

tenor; offertory: alto).

Examining the melodic line of the Officium defunctorum reveals several unusual features. Victoria on occasions uses intervals very rare in the Palestrina style: a down-ward minor sixth, a major sixth in each direction, an ascending major ninth, and a de-scending major fourth. Octave intervals in either direction are common, sometimes joined by various other intervals: on one occasion the ascending octave is followed by a descending octave, on others by a further ascending third or a descending fourth.

Only on three occasions is the upward octave followed by a downward perfect fifth, although the reverse of this – a descending octave before an ascending perfect fifth – is much commoner. Relatively frequent is a descending perfect octave combined with an ascending perfect fourth. It is worth noting that these intervals occur most often in the bass, quite frequently in the first tenor, and relatively rarely in the second tenor, alto, and first treble parts, while the second treble singing the cantus firmus has one only once.

One feature of Palestrina’s music is to try to fill leaps in as far as possible. This draws a clear, demonstrable distinction between the ascending and descending inter-vals: he fills in upward leaps far more carefully than downward. Often a second leap in the opposite direction is the response to a large downward leap, whereas a large up-ward leap is answered most often by a downup-ward stepping movement. Victoria’s work of 1605 has frequent pairs of leaps in the same direction. A descending fifth may be followed by a third in the same direction, or more commonly a perfect fourth of fifth, resulting in an aggregate leap of a seventh, octave, or ninth. On four occasions a down-ward perfect fourth is followed by a downdown-ward perfect fifth. More rarely there appear consecutive upward leaps, the intervals being 1) an ascending perfect fourth, then a perfect fifth, 2) two ascending perfect fourths, or 3) an ascending perfect fifth followed by a perfect fourth.

The most frequent melodic motifs in the Requiem are composed of four quarter notes in various combinations. One of the commonest consists of four ascending quar-ter notes. Similar in frequency is the opposite: four descending quarquar-ter notes. Only once is there a figure with a low returning note (F–E–F–G), nine times one with a returning third (C–D–E–C), and three times one with a C sharp–B–C sharp–A. Apart from the quarter-note series, it is worth remarking on a motif of two dotted half notes, two thirty-second notes, and one half note, one a stepwise descending motif and the other a formula with a lower returning note (E–D–E–F and G–F–G–A).

Note repetition occurs in the work in three forms: 1) portamento, 2) as a Landini cadence, and 3) a quarter-note figure that is also syllabification. Changing notes occur as 1) four notes with a rhythm of a dotted half note–quarter note–half note–half note, 2)

a four-note augmented form, and 3) an archaic three-note form. Cross relation appears only three times, between the notes C sharp–C and F–F sharp.

Of the non-harmonic tones, the 4–3 occurs most commonly. Less common are 7–6 (13 times in the work). A 9–8 retardation and a passing seventh occur twice, and a 6–5 and 2–1 once each, whereas a double, 6–5, 4–3 retardation comes four times, and a 9–8, 7–6 and a 9–8, 4–3 once each in the Officium. Of the four-note chords, all four inver-sions appear, usually with values of a quarter note. Chords of a seventh and a fifth/sixth appear with equal frequency, but third/fourth and seconds are far less frequent (four times and twice respectively).

The two-part form of the Officium defunctorum introit follows the antiphon/psalter structure of the Gregorian item. The first part is built out of three sections of an imita-tive nature:

1) Dona eis Domine (bars 1–15) performs imitation of two principal themes at once.

Subject (A) takes the movement’s Gregorian melody as its pattern, introducing mel-odies in this order with the following initial notes: A (C1); Tr1 (A1); Tr2 (F1). Subject (A) with steps of a second contrasts with (B), which opposes the dying third or fourth with a conspicuous fifth: T1 (A); T2 (F); T1 (F1). The entry order by the two subjects is A (A) + B (T1) together, A (S1) + B (T2) together, and A (Tr2), B (T1) (Example 5).

2) Et lux perpetua (bars 15–21): the characteristic of the subject is that it starts with a great variety of descending intervals. The entry order of the parts, the initial notes and the descending intervals: T2 (C1), 3; A (C1), 3; Tr1 (A1), 4 + B (F), 3 at once;

A (F1), 3; T1 (B), 4 + T2 (D1), 3 at once; B (F), 8; A (F1), 2.

3) Luceat eis (bars 21–33). The principal subject contrasts with the relative mobility of the previous by starting with almost all perfect prime intervals, from which the T2 and A parts depart in a few cases by livening the static nature of the melody with an entry second. The imitative parts in this section follow extremely close: T2 (C1);

Example 5: Officium defunctorum, Requiem aeternam introit, bars 1–4

B (F); T1 (D1); S1 (F1) + A (D1) at once; T1 (C1); B (F); A (D1); Tr1 (C2); T2 (F);

A (D1); T1 (C1); T2 (F). All three sections end with an F Ionic cadence.

The second great unit of the introit, which provides a six-part setting of the psalm text, likewise divides into three sections, the basic characteristic being double-theme imitation. This part is less uniform in its scale than the previous, as the D Aeolian mode of the first two units is followed by the F Ionic mode of the third.

1) Et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem (bars 1–10). The first three syllables are homo-phone in structure, while the rest is present the psalm text with close entries mainly of pairs of parts: A (F1) + T2 (F) together; Tr1 (C2), T1 (A) + B (F) together; Tr2 (A1).

The three consecutive perfect primes give the main section of the subject a strong similarity to the theme of the third section.

2) Exaudi (bars 10–16). Victoria composed for this single word six bars of double-theme imitation. The introductory subject is a motif that ascends, then falls back (Tr1: A1; B: D; T1: B; T2: A). The second may originate from the Gregorian tune, with a melodic line ascending in steps (Tr2: F1; A: C1). Just as the first section has its counterpart in the main section, so this unit is akin to the first, with its introduction of double-theme imitation and a Gregorian principal subject.

3) Orationem meam (bars 16–27). This section can be seen thematically as a mirror image of the last. The introductory motif curls back in the opposite direction, i. e.

the melody (A) descends and then returns (T1: D1; B: D; Tr1: D2), while the ascent is answered in this section by a rising (B) (A: F1; T2: F). The combination of the two brings about the following imitation order: A (T1); A (B); B (A); B (T2); A (Tr1).

The following movement is basically homophone. Only the Christe eleison section brings some variety in a reduction of the number of parts and the use of imitation based on the Gregorian principle theme: Tr1 (F1); A (C1); Tr2 (F1); T (F); Tr1 (D1); A (C1).

Example 6: Officium defunctorum, Requiem aeternam introit, bars 10–13

The gradual, like the introit, follows a structure of main section+versicle, and also divides into two units. The first consists of three short passages and the second of two.

All the formal units are in A–Aeolian except the first passage of the versicle, which is in C–Ionian.

1) Dona eis Domine (bars 1–9). The subject, which drops a third and returns, again derives from a Gregorian chant. The parts join in rapidly until all appear (Tr2: C2; T1: C2; T1: F1; B: F; T2: C1; A: F1). Only the bass alters the theme by adding a down-ward second to the downdown-ward third before regaining the melodic starting point.

2) Et lux perpetua (bars 9–12). The music to the same text in the introit appears here in a double-theme variant: the first (A) consists of four quarter notes with the same pitch (T1: E1; Tr1: E2; T2: C + B: A, together; Tr2: C2 + A: A1 together), and the sec-ond (B) a refinement of the last made up of three quarter notes, four eighth notes, and one quarter note (T1: G; B: C). The imitation in these two themes takes the form of A (T1); A (Tr1 + T2 + B together); A (Tr2 + A once); B (T1); A (T2) + B (B) together.

3) Luceat eis (bars 13–23). Again a double-theme passage follows. The alto and second treble sound the Gregorian chant a bar apart, starting from F1 ; the other parts sing in imitation a subject beginning with a downward third, in which only the first treble is exceptional in consistently substituting a downward second for the third (T1: C1; B:

F; T2: F1; T1: C1; B: C1; T1: D1 + T2: D1 together; B: G; B: D).

The versicle of the gradual, like that of the introit, begins with a homophonic sec-tion (erit justus, bars 1–9). Then it becomes livelier, and instead of imitasec-tion within a part, there is imitation between groups of parts. Bars 9–15 (ab auditione mala) is heard first from Tr2 (C2); A (A1) + T (F1) together, then the Tr1 (F2) parts, and then T2 (C1), B (F1), T1 (F1). As with the first section to the Luceat eis text, there appears from bar 15 a Gregorian melody to canon-like material, accompanied by imitation from a subject moving in broader steps. But instead of the alto singing the cantus firmus with the

sec-Example 7: Officium defunctorum, Requiem aeternam gradual, bars 9–11

ond treble, this is now taken over by the first treble (Tr2: G1; Tr1: C2). The imitation on a theme using an upward third and a downward fourth is brought out as follows: A (C1);

T2 (C1); B (F); T1 (F1); B (C1); T2 (D1); B (G); B (D). Although there is no similarity with the third section of the main movement in the order of appearance of the parts, there is a strong one in the introductory notes.

1) Libera animas eorum (bars 1–8). This is a basically homophonic section with a G–

Mixolydian cadence.

2) Fidelium defunctorum de poenis inferni (bars 8–21). This unit consists of six and eight bars, where the first part uses a theme of three notes at the same pitch for the imitation (see the introit: luceat eis; introit versicle: reddetur votum; gradual: et lux perpetua), while the second parts shifts this by a half or whole downward interval of a second. The order of imitation is: 1st part: Tr2 (H1) + T1 (G) together; T2 (G) + Tr1 (C2) + B (C) together; 2nd part: T2 (A); Tr1 (A1); B (D); A (D1); Tr1 (A1); T1 (D1);

Tr2 (A1). The scale of this unit is D–Dorian.

3) Et de profundo lacu (bars 21–25). This short section is also built on imitation of a theme of three notes of the same pitch (T2: A; B: D; Tr2: D1; Tr1: A1 + A: D1 to-gether; T1: D + T2: F together), in a note series of F-Lydian.

4) Libera eas de ore leonis (bars 25–34). The first section of five bars uses free imita-tion to set the words libera eas. The theme, which begins with a downward third also appears in variations of downward and upward seconds (T2: C1; B: F; Tr2: A1; A: E1; Tr1: E1; T1: A). The theme of the second section of six bars (de ore leonis) rests on ascending intervals, usually fourths, but occasionally a third or an octave, and twice a fifth (Tr2: A1; Tr1: E1; T1: D; B: D; T2: G; A: D1; T1: G). The scale is C–Ionian.

5) Ne absorbeat eas tartarus ne cadant in obscurum (bars 34–45). The principal theme here is headed by an upward second and third, or in reverse order, an upward third and second (B: C; Tr1: E1; Tr2: C1 + T2: A together; A: C1; T1: G; T2: F; Tr1: F1).

Victoria treats the expression ne cadant to dense imitation and several kinds of me-lodic line: 1) two consecutive descending thirds; 2) a descending second and third;

3) an ascending second and a descending third; 4) the reverse of that, i. e. a descend-ing third and then an ascenddescend-ing second. The section is in the scale of D-Dorian.

6) Sed signifer sanctus Michael representet eas in lucem sanctam (bars 45–62). The first five bars (sed signifer) are composed in very dense imitation, in which no typ-ical theme appears (Tr1: A1 + B: D together; T1: A; A: D1 + T2: D1, together; Tr2:

D1; Tr1: G1; T1: A; Tr2: A1; Tr1: E1 + T2: A together). The next three bars set the name of St. Michael, naturally in imitation, for which Victoria uses a downward and a returning second (T1: E1 + B: A together; A: E1; T2: D1; Tr1: A1; Tr2: G1). The representet eas section is based on a stepwise ascending subject (Example 8), whose unusual feature consists of two half notes at the same pitch, both becoming separate bearers of syllables. The parts enter as T1 (A) + B (D) together; Tr1 (A1); A (D1);

Tr1 (A1) + T2 (A) together; Tr2 (G1); Tr1 (E1) + B (A) together. The last unit of the section (in lucem sanctam) follows the first in using free imitation, whose principal

theme is most often an upward third or more rarely a fourth (A: C1; T2: A; B: A; Tr1:

E1 + Tr2: G1 together; T1: E + T2: G together; T1: A + B: A together; Tr1: A1 + Tr2:

F1 + T2: D together). All smaller units of the section end in D-Dorian.

7) Quam olim Abrahae promisisti et semini ejus (bars 62–78). This part, which acts as a repetenda, again splits into smaller units, with the descending intervals of the theme in the first four bars lending some unity (Tr1: F1 + S2: A1 + B: D together; T1:

D1 + T2: D together; A: D1); the second four are yet another case of a subject start-ing with notes of the same pitch (A: F sharp1 + T2: A; Tr1: A1 + B: D together; Tr2:

D2; T1: D1). The notes in the closing passage are again in D-Dorian. Victoria did not compose the versicle of the offertory in polyphony; the complete edition does not include that or the Gregorian chant of the repetenda.

After the long, complex movement of the offertory, Victoria turns for the Sanctus to a rather simpler setting. Imitation parts appear in the bars 1–7 (Sanctus, Sanctus, A:

A; Tr1: E1; T1: A; A: D1), but the decisive treatment is homophony, in which the note set of bars 7–17 (Dominus Deus Sabaoth) modulates from F-Lydian at the end of the first part to A-Aeolian, then D-Dorian in the Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua passage, until Hosanna in excelsis closes with A-Aeolian again. Also homophonic in structure is the F–Lydian first eight bars of the Benedictus, but the short imitation passage of an ascending third and second of the closing Hosanna is in G-Mixolydian (A: A + T2: F together; B: D; T1: A; Tr2: D1).

Victoria uses similarly simple methods to set the text of Agnus Dei. The first unit is entirely homophonic, set in D-Dorian (bars 1–7). Only at dona eis requiem does an imi-ta tion passage appear in G-Mixolydian with a theme of a downward fifth answered by an upward fourth appear (T2: A; B: D; T2: D1; T2: D1; B: G; T1: C1). The third Agnus Dei starts with an imitation section in F–Lydian (bars 1–8) and then divides the text

Example 8: Officium defunctorum, Domine Jesu Christe offertory, bars 53–55

dona eis requiem sempiternam: first creating a short imitation passage from a subject with an ascending second (dona eis requiem T2: G; Tr1: D1; A: G1), and then reversing the ascending fifth, ascending fourth theme into one of a descending fourth, descending

dona eis requiem sempiternam: first creating a short imitation passage from a subject with an ascending second (dona eis requiem T2: G; Tr1: D1; A: G1), and then reversing the ascending fifth, ascending fourth theme into one of a descending fourth, descending

In document Space, time, tradition (Pldal 59-73)