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A guide to the responsories of the Ambrosian Office

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2016

TERENCE BAILEY
TERENCE BAILEY*
Affiliation:
tbailey@uwo.ca
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Abstract

A guide, with historical observations, that distinguishes the kinds of responsories employed in the Ambrosian liturgy, describes their liturgical functions and performance practice, determines the size of the various repertories, and discusses the textual and musical characteristics of the types.

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Type
Research Article
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Plainsong & Medieval Music , Volume 25 , Issue 1: Plainsong and Medieval Music , April 2016, pp. 5 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2016 

The excellent and still indispensable Catholic Encyclopedia of 1907–14, under the heading ‘Ambrosian Liturgy and Rite’, discusses the kinds of responsories sung in the Ambrosian Office. For those unfamiliar with Ambrosian practices, the entry could be misleading: for one thing it omits any reference to the medieval office of Vigils; moreover, its author, the magisterial Henry Jenner, in employing the nomenclature of the Ambrosian service books, identifies and might appear to differentiate eight types. The medieval terminology makes the usages of the Ambrosian responsory appear more distinctive than they actually were.

Emphasis on the differences between the Ambrosian and the Gregorian traditions has long been an impediment to understanding the Milanese liturgy, and the present case of the responsories is only one example. Gregorio Suñol in his practical editions of 1935 and 1939Footnote 1 included more than 150 Ambrosian psalm tones – a huge number, widely remarked on. But the 150 differentiae can be reduced to a dozen – or even less – when it is observed that the copyists of the manuscript antiphoners addedFootnote 2 the musical cues casually – in a manner sufficient, certainly, for those familiar with the recitation tones, but with little regard to diastematic accuracy.Footnote 3 Jenner's nomenclature does follow the old usage, and is perfectly correct, but like Suñol's over-literal transcription of the psalm tones, it is misleading. The medieval categories sometimes identify the type of responsory, sometimes its singer and sometimes its venue; they do not differentiate the types.

Nothing further concerning the kinds of Ambrosian responsory has appeared in the century since Jenner's synopsis, and seeing that this is still very often cited (not least on the Internet without attribution), it seems useful to take up the question of the Milanese responsory-types, to describe the liturgical function of each, to say what can be determined about the performance practice and to comment briefly on the size of the various repertories and the assignments – all this with the hope of encouraging others to pursue avenues of research where so few have ventured. I will begin with some brief historical remarks and a few general comments on the interrelationship of the only two Latin liturgies that have survived complete.

Milanese and Franco-Roman

The earliest service book to detail the contents of the Ambrosian Office – the texts only – is the Manuale,Footnote 4 whose oldest complete manuscript, from Brezzo di Bedero in the Val Travaglia near the Italian-Swiss border, can be dated to the eleventh century. An incomplete copy that agrees as far as it goes with the copy from Brezzo has been assigned, not very securely, to c.1000.Footnote 5 The two oldest manuscripts to preserve the texts of the GregorianFootnote 6 offices, both dated to the late ninth century, are from AlbiFootnote 7 and Compiègne.Footnote 8 These two books, like the Ambrosian Manuale, contain secular usages,Footnote 9 intended for cathedrals or collegiate churches, not for monasteries.

The two Gregorian books are probably a century or more older than the Manuale. Yet if we look past liturgical complications and consider only the number of responsories, the Ambrosian usage is by comparison strikingly more conservative. Albi includes more than six hundred (614) responsories, virtually all for lessons at Matins;Footnote 10 the manuscript from Compiègne, well over seven hundred (743). The Ambrosian number is much smaller: scarcely more than two hundred (203)Footnote 11 responsoriesFootnote 12 are assigned for lessons at Matins in the Manuale.

The Ambrosian repertory as a whole is largely independent of the Gregorian, but if the Matins responsories are a sufficient gauge, and if we can trust exact textual correspondences to represent in most cases a musical relationship, the Milanese liturgy was importantly related to those of many other cathedrals of the Latin West: as many as eighty-four of the Ambrosian 200 appear in the CANTUS indices, and since we are very far from knowing the contents of all the surviving Gregorian manuscripts, the number of shared responsories may well be considerably higher. This sharing is by no means a recent development: at the end of the ninth century, within the first century of the dissemination of the Gregorian liturgy, Albi contained as many as forty of the Ambrosian 200; and all but four of these forty were also entered in Compiègne. These observations are not meant to question the distinctiveness of the Milanese repertory: more than half of the 200-plus responsories sung at Matins are presently found only in Ambrosian books. But it is important to note that the Ambrosian repertory is not independent, and that the full extent of interdependence between Milan and Gregorian regions remains unknown.

It might seem that a very rough estimate of the number of authentically Ambrosian responsories could be obtained by comparing their text incipits with those in the CANTUS master list of Gregorian office chants. But it must be kept in mind that (1) the same texts, especially if they are popular psalm verses, may have different Gregorian and Ambrosian melodiesFootnote 13 and that (2) some chants whose texts differ significantly in detail should properly be considered versions of the same responsory. Moreover, the general integration of medieval liturgies in Western Europe and the importance of the Milanese Church are such that it would be unsafe to assume that shared chants, even those sharing text and melody, are Franco-Roman rather than Ambrosian in origin.

Responsories

These chants usually consist of two parts, a caputFootnote 14 – the refrain – and a single verse (although occasionally two, three or more, preserving something closer to their ancient form).Footnote 15 The texts are most often taken from the psalms and other similarly poetic books of the Bible, but sometimes – and increasingly over time – from sources other than Scripture. A significant number of responsory texts in the medieval books, although freely composed, are pastiches in the biblical style; but many others are adapted from the writings devoted to the lives of the saints.

The historical record suggests that responsories, as we know them, are the musically elaborated remnants of whole psalms that were associated with public readings from Scripture. In Book 2 of the Apostolic Constitutions, a document generally agreed to have been written in Antioch towards the end of the fourth century, we read about such psalms:

In the middle [of the church] the reader is to stand on something high and read the books of Moses, of Joshua the son of Nun, of Judges and Kings, of Chronicles, and those from after the return [from Babylon]; and in addition, those of Job, of Solomon and the sixteen Prophets. After [every] two readings let someone else sing the hymns of David, and let the people respond with verses (ἀκροστίχια). After this, let our Acts [of the Apostles] be read, and the epistles of Paul our fellow worker.Footnote 16

The explanation for ‘our Acts’, and ‘Paul our fellow worker’, is that the author of this section of the Constitutions naively claimed to be St Matthew the evangelist.

In the extract, the readings and the psalms – the ‘hymns of David’ – are assigned to a single person. Στίχος is the Greek equivalent of the English word verse, whose general literary meaning is ‘a line of text’; ἀκροστίχια (from the adjective ἄκρος, tip or end – either end) are obviously verses (more often partial verses) of a particular kind. The term suggests a refrain sung at the beginning or end of psalm verses but not necessarily with every verse, although many-times-repeated refrains are found in the psalms themselves, the 135th, for example, where the akrostichon ‘for his mercy abides forever’ is sung with all seventeen verses.

In the year 385, that is to say about the same time as the extract from the Apostolic Constitutions, St Ambrose, the great bishop of Milan, alludes to a practice similar to that in Antioch:

This morning there was a reading, as you brothers must remember, inasmuch as we were responding, with the greatest agony of spirit, ‘O God, the heathen are come into your inheritance.’Footnote 17

In the fourth-century Milanese Church, as in Antioch, psalms would have been sung by individual clerics. St Ambrose and his clergy did not sing together the whole of Psalm 78, only part of its first verse, and this repeatedly, if we may gauge from his use of ‘respondebamus’, the first-person plural, imperfect tense of the verb. O God, the heathen are come into your inheritance was the choral akrostichon, in this instance sung by the clergy, not the people – as the public liturgy and its forms became more complex, the role of the congregation was reduced, eventually to a silent presence.

Assignments and aptness

Responsories are generally apt for the day or the season, but one should not look for a particular connection between their texts and the associated hymns or readings;Footnote 18 this was not the original intention. We must remember that in Antioch a responsory was sung after every two readings, not after each. But against the notion of specificity of assignment there is an argument a fortiori. Response has a common meaning, but the word can also be used in a number of technical senses. Responsum usually carries the common meaning. Responsorium refers to the akrostichon, a refrain used in recitation, never meant to be a reply, introduction, or commentary on the associated reading. The Milanese preserved something of the thinking of fourth-century Antioch and described the responsories at Matins as between readings, not following them. This is made clear in the following extracts from the ordinal:Footnote 19

A reader always sings the two responsories between the lessons [inter lectiones] on Sundays and festivals and in Lent. . . .

The [head] boy of the Master of the Scholars always sings the responsories between the lessons [inter lectiones] on ordinary weekdays.Footnote 20

Lessons were largely a local option,Footnote 21 and subject to revision; the responsories were usually assigned in accordance with widespread traditions (monastic or diocesan) and were unchanged even when the readings were altered. Specific aptness of liturgical forms is largely a later desideratum, one that led to a multiplication of chants for particular occasions. The early liturgy employed fewer chants that for the most part were only generally appropriate. This repertory survives in the collections of the Commune. The actual choice from among these chants would notionally have been ad libitum – constrained only by obvious considerations, whether, for example, the text was penitential or festive, or whether the choice might be understood to refer to particular occasions of the Temporale or Sanctorale.Footnote 22 There is good evidence that many of the assignments to specific occasions were the contribution of the Franks to the Roman chants they adopted in the eighth and ninth centuries.

Responsories sung at Matins, Vespers and Vigils after hymns

At Matins,Footnote 23 Vespers and VigilsFootnote 24 responsories were sung after the hymn that was always one of the first items.Footnote 25 I mentioned that the complexity of Jenner's synopsis is partly the result of the varied nomenclature in Ambrosian books. Here is a case in point: at Matins, the first responsory was usually given the rubric ‘post hymnum’; at Vespers the responsory sung with the hymn was called (less obviously) ‘in choro’, that is, ‘in the chancel’. Moreover, in all three offices alternative identifiers such as ‘responsorium diaconile’, ‘responsorium cum [in]fantibus’ are also to be found, these indicating who was to sing (in these instances, a deacon, or the boys).Footnote 26

The number of the responsories sung after hymns is considerable. Combining those assigned at Matins, Vespers and Vigils, we reach a total of 213.Footnote 27 The breakdown is as follows: sixty-seven responsories sung after the hymns at Matins; 123 responsories sung after hymns at Vespers; thirty-two responsories sung after hymns at Vigils.Footnote 28 None of the responsories sung with hymns is assigned to Vespers and also to Matins; none of responsories after the hymn at Vigils is sung with a Vespers hymn; only threeFootnote 29 (probably late re-assignments) of the thirty-two responsories sung with hymns at Vigils are also sung with hymns at Matins. It seems likely that the responsoria post hymnos were once entered on three separate lists – lists that were later the basis of the Manuale and the antiphoners – but there is nothing obvious about the texts of the chants or their musical settings that would suggest that the original distribution was other than mechanical.

The performance practice

The question of which singers aside, it seems that the execution was normally the same for all kinds of responsories in Milan, and it will be convenient to take up the general question of performance practice before describing the remaining types.

The following excerpt from the ordinal, which describes the liturgy ‘on the eve of a saint's festival’, not in one of the cathedrals but in the church ‘where the festival is celebrated’,Footnote 30 also includes information about the hymns that is interesting and important in itself, but in the present instance relevant, because it reveals that in the stational church (and presumably also in the cathedrals) the chancel was the venue. (We shall see shortly in a rubric from the first printed missal that at MatinsFootnote 31 the hymn, and doubtless the following responsory, were sung in the pulpit, that is, in the nave.) Details about the lucernarium also tell us that the execution of the hymn and the responsory differed on ordinary and special occasions:

The priest, standing behind the altar kisses it and says ‘Dominus vobiscum’, then the [head] boy of the Master of the Scholars always sings the lesser lucernaria. . . . The officiating terminarius lector sings the solemn lucernaria. . . . When the lucernarium is done, [the priest] says again ‘Dominus vobiscum’, and the chief [lector] with the [other] lectors sings the antiphon ‘in choro’, as usual. Then the priest goes in front of the altar and gives the salutation [‘Dominus vobiscum’] and starts the hymn, . . . then the chorus begins the hymn [alternating verses with him]. . . . Whenever the terminarius lector sings the [solemn] lucernarium, the Master of the Scholars sings the hymn with the boys, alternating [verses] with the chorus [i.e., the boys] . . . When the hymn is done . . . the [terminarius] lector on duty sings the responsory, except when it is [a responsory] ‘with the boys’.Footnote 32

Nothing about repetitions is found here, but we learn from the rubrics concerning the responsoria gradalia and the Confitemini Footnote 33 that even on ordinary weekdays everything was doubled:

after the twelvefold Kyrie . . . [a] terminarius [lector] sings . . . the gradale responsorium, . . . caput and verse [and again the caput, i.e., the repetendum Footnote 34], and the chorus [of terminarii] does the same; . . . on the other days [i.e., not on Sundays], when the graduale [sic] is sung, a minor [terminarius] lector always sings it, in a mild voice, and again [tantum is the word, but iterum seems to have been meantFootnote 35] the whole caput; and the chorus [of lectors] does the same.Footnote 36 . . .

the [head] boy of the Master of the Scholars . . . sings the Confitemini . . . caput and verse, and again the caput. And the Master of the Scholars with the boys does the same.Footnote 37

These rubrics allow for different interpretations. It might be construed that the form was caput (solo), verse with repetendum (solo), caput (group), verse with repetendum (group). But it seems likely that the Milanese practice was the same as the Roman, described by Amalarius in De ordine antiphonarii,Footnote 38 that is, caput (solo), caput (group), verse with repetendum (solo), verse with repetendum (group).

Speaking of the performance of responsories between lessons at Matins, Magistretti remarks ‘that it [the caput] is repeated once before the verse’,Footnote 39 and he goes on (to what end is not clear) to cite a rubric from 1475 in the first printed missal:

A minor Master of the chorus, i.e., of the scholars, sings the first verse alone standing in the pulpit among the boys. . . . The [officiating] Master responds with the boys [i.e., they sing the following verse]. . . . The [minor] master of the scholars who sang first is to sing the [alternating] verses solo.Footnote 40

Magistretti says quite clearly that this rubric applies to the responsory (‘modum huiusmodi responsoria canendi’), but perhaps the fastidious Milanese scholar's remarks are not printed accurately in his edition: it is surely the practice of the hymn that is described, not the responsory. Be that as it may, we do learn that the responsory, which followed immediately, was sung in the pulpit, that is, in the nave.

Although (as far as I know) none of the medieval books includes a general rule that the caput was to be repeated before the verse, it is occasionally specifiedFootnote 41 and should probably be assumed where it is not. Magistretti (1862–1921), Cappellano Corale e Vice Cerimoniere of the Duomo, would have known the actual Ambrosian liturgy as well as anyone, and he describes such repetitions as a general practice. While such doubling is probably the medieval usage faithfully preserved into the twentieth century, it cannot be taken for granted.

What we have learned applies to the responsories sung at Matins between the lessons. There is some indication (slight, but perhaps worth mentioning) that the caput of the responsories sung in the baptistries might not normally have been repeated before the verse. In Vimercate B (f. 88v) the caput of Canite initio mensis, the responsory in the baptistries after Matins on the octave of Christmas, is followed by the word ‘iterum’ (‘again’) and a neumed cue to the opening notes of the responsory. If the normal practice in the baptistries had been to sing the caput twice before the verse, it might seem that this direction would be unnecessary. But it is perhaps more likely that the cue was inserted merely to specify that in this particular case the repetendum was – exceptionally – the entire caput. Certainly exceptionalFootnote 42 in the baptistry on 1 January was the assignment of the responsory to the Master of the Singers, presumably with his boys.Footnote 43

If, indeed, the caput was not normally repeated in the baptistries, there were certainly other exceptions besides Canite initio mensis. A second repetendum with inserted melismas (melodiae) was provided for a few important occasions. The likely form of these responsories is presumably caput (solo), caput (group), verse with first repetendum (solo), verse with second repetendum (group).

Responsories between readings at Matins

In Milan there were usually three lessons at Matins; one responsory was sung between the first and second reading, and another between the second and third; no responsory followed the third lesson. On some occasions the office was long enough to be divided into analogous sections called turmae in Milan (the counterpart of the Franco-Roman nocturnae). On Good Friday there were two turmae, each with three readings, but only four responsories are assigned, two for each turma; on Christmas and Epiphany there were six responsories, two for each of the three turmae. The number of responsories and their liturgical position are interesting matters because they are another indication of the conservative nature of the Ambrosian rite, which (at Matins, although not at Vigils)Footnote 44 preserved the fourth-century practice of the Apostolic Constitutions. In the Gregorian use, a responsory followed each of the reading at Matins,Footnote 45 and on the occasions when the office was long enough to be divided into nocturns, each had three lessons and three responsories. To repeat a figure given earlier, the Ambrosian total of responsories assigned between readings at Matins is 203.

Responsories with readings, at Vigils

After Terce,Footnote 46 the clergy on the roster for the week (the ordinarii) left the cathedralFootnote 47 in procession, usually to the principal Milanese church of the saint's cult, to begin Vigils (vigiliae). In this first stage of the office, three responsories are always assigned, one to follow the opening hymn and two others that followed the usual two readings. Some of this is revealed, quite incidentally, in an informative rubric detailing the remuneration to be paid on one occasion:

on the Vigil of St Simplicianus . . . to the two notaries who read the lessons at Matins (in psalmis), and to the third who reads the first lesson at Vigils, and to the notary who sings the first responsory at Matins, and to the lesser [notary] who sings the second responsory at Matins, and to the other notary who sings the second responsory at Vigils, and to the reader who sings the third responsory at Vigils [i.e., after the second reading], to each of these seven, five denarii [small silver coins] are given.Footnote 48

Although there were usually two readings at Vigils, it seems from a remark in the ordinal (‘and if lessons are read at the Vigil’)Footnote 49 that they were not always a part of the proceedings.

After the first stage of Vigils was completed, the cathedral clergy set out again in procession – when no other stations are specified, presumably back to the winter cathedral.Footnote 50 But for the festivals of saints whose cult was particularly important in Milan, Vigils might include several stations. For St Andrew, the office began in the Ambrosianum, the great basilica of St Ambrose,Footnote 51 after which the clergy went in procession to the churches of St Andrew, St Satiro and St Nabor, and (to conclude the office) back to the Ambrosianum. For readings in the first phase of Vigils, two responsories are assigned. An additional responsory is assigned at the other stations, but never for the last stage of Vigils in the church where the office was brought to a close.

We know that lessons were read in the first stage; none is specified in the service books with any of the responsories at any subsequent stations.Footnote 52 But one of the copies of the ManualeFootnote 53 does assign lessons at stations in the three-day litany (see below), whose processions and visits to churches in the city are analogous to those on important saints’ Vigils, and from this it seems pretty clear that on these latter occasions lessons were also assigned. In any case, it will not be misleading to assume that all the responsories assigned at Vigils were intended to follow hymns or lessons, because the same chants that were assigned at Vigils were routinely assigned with readings or hymns at Matins as well, and obviously belong to the same chant-class.

We have seen that thirty-two responsories were assigned after hymns at Vigils. The other responsories at the same office, all presumably associated with lessons, total sixty-eight.

Responsories in the lesser hours

In the lesser hours of Prime, Terce, Sext, None and Compline, responsories were sung with doxology and repetendum after the reading of the customary brief excerpts from the Epistles (epistolellae).Footnote 54 Following is an entry in the Manuale for Compline:

Pax multa diligentibus legem tuam v. Et non est illis scandalum [repetendum:] lex tua domine [sic] v. Gloria patri.Footnote 55

This particular entry is interesting because the repetendum (i.e., lex tua domine) was not what would be expected. It was obviously changed for reasons of grammar and sense: ‘Great peace to those who love your law v. And for them there is no stumbling’ repetendum ‘Yours is the law, Lord’.

Entries such as that for Pax multum refer to what are called responsoria brevia in Gregorian books. None of these brief chants appears in the antiphoners: there was no need, since the texts were sung to simple recitation formulae known to all.

In the three-day litany

The penitential processions to various churches of the city on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday following AscensionFootnote 56 included twelve responsories and readings at the stations and responsoria in choro (sung after the first hymn) at Vespers. It seems that none of these responsories was sung in Gregorian regions (although it must be kept in mind that the chants for the Major Litany have not yet been completely inventoried).

It is easily observable that in the antiphoners scribes tended to write out a melody, not at its first appearance, but for its principal assignment. When the chant is needed elsewhere – even earlier in the book – simple text cues are entered. It seems significant, therefore, that all thirty-eight responsories sung during the three-day litany (thirty-six with readings at the stational churches; twoFootnote 57 at Vespers on the first two days of the litany) are written out for these penitential days. The suggestion is that they constituted a dedicated repertory. In any case, their only other Milanese assignments are quite clearly secondary.Footnote 58

At funerals, after the washing of the body

No readings are identified for the sixteen penitential responsories sung after the preparation of the body for burial, but they were sung in an office that includes five antiphons and psalms and amounts to an extended Vigil before the burial – a liturgical wake, as it were. The obvious similarity of this Vigil to the regular night office makes it likely that lessons were also read at the funeral watch, a conclusion that is supported by the assignment on other occasions of all but five of the sixteen with readings or with hymns.

A single category for responsories sung with hymns or readings?

It seems unnecessary to separate the responsories assigned for readings at Matins from those for readings at Vigils, since the repertories were to a significant extent shared (dozens have assignments to both offices). And it seems we might consolidate still further. The fact that hymns as well as lessons were followed by responsories (at Matins, Vespers and Vigils) suggests that in Milan, hymns were thought of as metrical readings and that responsories sung after hymns belong with the others sung with lessons in one large, inclusive category. The repertories of responsories sung with hymns and those sung with readings are largely discrete (probably because of lists drawn up to make sure that the available chants were distributed evenly), but not entirely so. Some three or four dozen responsories are assigned to readings and also to hymns, a number large enough to make clear that there is nothing about these chants that makes them appropriate to one or the other. It seems fitting, therefore, to apply Occam's razor and add together the responsories assigned for hymns or readings at Matins, Vespers and Vigils, and also those (in no way different) that were sung in the burial Vigil and the three-day litany. We then reach the total of 478.

Responsories sung independently

Since there are no Gregorian counterparts for the Ambrosian responsories not connected with readings, I will include in this article more detail about the liturgical placement of these chants – and their repertories – than seemed necessary for responsories whose use was essentially the same in Gregorian regions.

To begin, it should be said, concerning the independent responsories, that it can almost never be ruled out that lessons had once been read where no trace of them remains in the medieval books – the service books, detailed as they are, do not answer all questions, and much about the medieval Milanese liturgy will always remain unknown. But it is a reasonable assumption that a significant number of these chants were never associated with readings or hymns. How, then, are we to understand such responsories? The answer is, as psalms.

It would be hard to overstate the importance of the psalms in the early Christian liturgy. In the oldest documents we read, again and again, that a psalm was sung, or more than one, to mark the importance of an occasion. A responsory is almost never a setting of a complete psalm. But (although it may be difficult for us to comprehend such familiarity) it is quite certain that these poems were so well known to the clergy that the singing of only a verse or two (e.g., the caput-refrain and a single verse of a responsory) would be enough to call to mind the rest. Almost all responsories reduce their psalms to a textual minimum, but the part remaining encapsulated the whole.

Be that as it may, it seems that in Milan, as elsewhere, the elaborate melodic style, the considerable length and impressive execution of these chants had come to connote importance (generally speaking, the more important the occasion the more impressive the chant), so that they might be sung for no other purpose than to add to the solemnity of an occasion and perhaps highlight its principal theme: the independent responsories frequently have texts that are strikingly appropriate to the day.Footnote 59

In the baptistries after Matins and Vespers

Processions after Matins and Vespers from the chancel to both baptistries (Milan had two separate baptismal churches, not just fonts) were an almost daily occurrence; only in Holy Week were they suspended.Footnote 60 The proceedings in the baptistries normallyFootnote 61 included a responsory, and the sixty-nine genuine examplesFootnote 62 – ranging in style from the simplest quotidian assignments to the very elaborate chants for great occasions, some furnished with the long melismas known as melodiae – constitute the most important category of independent responsories.

Readings in the baptistries

Since the two medieval baptistries of Milan were churches in their own right, and since, as was mentioned, there were readings at other stations (those of the three-day litany and those for the numerous saints’ festivals),Footnote 63 the question whether unspecified readings were customary in the baptistries cannot be ignored. In none of the copies of the Manuale are such lessons mentioned, but even more tellingly – because the visits to the baptistries were so frequent – there is no hint of such readings in the ordinal, where lectors are routinely assigned or otherwise alluded to. And there is another argument against: readings were public acts intended to edify the vast clergy and any of the public assembled in the cathedrals. There is no reason to think that a significant portion of the cathedral clergy or laity was present in the relatively small baptistry churches for the extra observances that followed Matins and Vespers.

The repertory of responsories ‘in the baptistry’

There will always be unknown details about the responsories in the baptistries. There are lapses, places where the service books seem incomplete or faulty. Of course, such lacunae could often be repaired by singing the quotidian chant from the Commune, but it is likely other unspecified chants were sometimes intended.

In Advent, on Saturday in the second and third weeks, the responsorium in baptisterio of the previous Sunday is assigned after Vespers. But whether the Sunday chant or the quotidian assignment was sung after Matins and Vespers on other Advent Saturdays (and on other weekdays) is uncertain. Adding to the uncertainty is the fact that no responsory is assigned in the baptistry by the Manuale or the antiphoners after Matins for the first Sunday of Advent (the Commune dominicarum contains nothing that could repair this lapse).Footnote 64 Similarly, no responsory in baptisterio is entered at first or second Vespers of the feast of the Circumcision, even though there is a proper assignment (Canite initio mensis) for the analogous ceremonies after Matins; and no responsory in baptisterio is included for Feria IV in albis at Matins or Vespers, neither in the Manuale nor antiphoners.

I want to return to the question of assignments from Commune dominicarum replacing those missing in the service books. In the Temporale, particular responsoria in baptisterio are entered in the service books (1) for the seventeen most important Sundays (those with items specified in the Manuale and antiphoners), (2) for the Saturdays of weeks four and five of Advent, and for all the days of the sixth week, (3) for Christmas and Epiphany (not, however, for Ascension, another feast of the Lord), (4) for fiveFootnote 65 of the six days of Easter Week, and (5) for the weekdays of Eastertide. For only two saints’ feasts, those of St Stephen and Holy Innocents, are there special assignments (these two exceptions – both in Christmas Week, and hence in the Temporale, as it were – are probably lately added). Processions to the baptistries were held on saints’ festivals, but with the two exceptions just mentioned, responsories are never assigned in the baptistry. It may be that none was sung; but it might also be that the quotidian chants for Monday to Saturday were customary – the chant for the day of the week on which the festival occurred.

Provisions from the Commune were not always available. Remarkably, the list of occasions with assigned responsoria in baptisterio does not include ordinary Sundays: no responsories are provided in the Commune dominicarum, and it may be, indeed, that none was sung.Footnote 66 The Commune for Sundays does include psallendae (processional antiphons) to be sung on the way to the baptistries, and considering that responsories were sung there on ordinary weekdays, the omission on Sundays seems anomalous. Perhaps it was inadvertent. Although there is nothing to suggest they were used on these Sundays, suitable chants were available. The thirteen quotidian responsoria in baptisterio in the Common for WeekdaysFootnote 67 (only twelve are needed but an alternative is supplied for Vespers on Wednesdays) are redundantly assigned to the same days in Lent. But in Lent these thirteen chants are supplemented by others of the same neutral type. There is no way of knowing whether they were sung to repair the lapse, but at least seventeen suitable responsories were available for assignment in the baptistries on ordinary Sundays. Examples of missing or uncertain assignments could easily be multiplied. In the eleventh century, the Milanese liturgy, old as it was, was still a work in progress.

The responsoria gradalia

The name suggests that these interesting chants were sung on a step (gradus), probably one of the steps leading to the altar, since other independent responsories (as we will see) were sung at the altar.Footnote 68 The singer of the responsorium gradale (an everyday assignment) was one of the terminarii, the lowest ranking of the lectors, and it may be that his position on a step, that is, below the level of the altar, was meant to reflect this rank – the ‘corner of the altar’, effectively the top step, being reserved for clerics of the higher grades and chants of greater importance.

The gradalia were sung on weekdays, Monday through Saturday, when no feast occured, except in Easter Week (which was treated like a week of Sundays).Footnote 69 These responsories were sung after the second hymn, just before Matins was brought to a conclusion in the chancel by the observer clergy, and, it seems, before the officiating clergy set out in procession to the baptistries. We read that at the conclusion of Matins:Footnote 70

one of the two minor custodes carries [a censer] through the whole church, to the men and to the women. Then he hands the censer to the officiating cicendelario for him to put away, and thus honouring and praising God, they bring the office of Matins to a close as is ordained. But on the other days [i.e., not Sundays, the main subject of the directions], when the responsorium gradale is sung, a minor lector, after the twelve-fold Kyrie [the last sung item of Matins] is finished . . . sings it in a mild voice,Footnote 71 [caput and verse] and [againFootnote 72] the caput, and the chorus [presumably of terminarii] does the same.Footnote 73

The purpose of these gradalia, sung, as the rubric above makes clear, after Matins concluded (the twelvefold kyrie was the last sung item of the officeFootnote 74), is unknown. Magistretti suggested that the nine (only nine, even though the occasions were so many) accompanied the processions to the baptistries. There is nothing in the service books of the eleventh and twelfth centuries to confirm this hypothesis, although it should be noted that processional antiphons (psallendae) were not assigned on ordinary weekdays. Against Magistretti's hypothesis is that it does not explain the practice for the analogous procession after Vespers, when neither gradalia nor psallendae were assigned.Footnote 75 Moreover, if the gradalia accompanied processions, it seems curious that they are identified by the place where they were sung, not (as in the case of the psallendae in or de baptisterio) the route to be followed.

None of the nine responsoria gradalia has any other assignment. Six did service for most of the year, but special chants, probably later additions, were assigned on Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. None of the nine appears in the CANTUS lists.Footnote 76

Confitemini domino quoniam

The circumstances of another chant, whose full text is Confitemini domino quoniam bonus v. Confitemini deo deorum, are very similar to those of the gradalia. Like them sung very frequently, and like them unintegrated into the liturgy, the chant was also executed in the same manner:

Before Terce is signalled . . . the [head] boy of the Master of the Scholars, vested in a camisole ascends the pulpit and sings the Confitemini, in a mild voice,Footnote 77 caput and verse, and again the caput [i.e., as repetendum]. Then the Master of the Scholars does the same with the boys, [also] in a soft voice. [This is the practice] on all Saturdays, Sundays, and important occasions, [namely] Christmas and Christmas week, and on Epiphany, but not on the Lenten Saturdays and not on Easter and the six days following. The said Master [of the Boys] stands outside the chancel near the pulpit from the beginning of Confitemini to the beginning of the hymn [at the start of Terce].Footnote 78

The short text of Confitemini is not unlike the many versicles and responses that punctuate the liturgy (e.g., ‘Dominus vobiscum’/‘Et cum spiritu tuo’; ‘Benedicamus Domino’/‘Deo gratias’). The ABA form is that of a responsory, but the repetendum was possibly a late addition. In the old service books the genre of Confitemini is not specified.Footnote 79

On Christmas, Epiphany and Holy Saturday, at Matins

On these occasions of the greatest importance, near the end of Matins, an extra responsory was sung ‘at the corner of the altar’, presumably by the deacon. The explanation for its place in the office may simply be that it follows the fixed holiday-series of canticles and psalms, the last item of which was the Laudate (Psalms 148–150 plus 116).

There is no suggestion that the extra responsories accompanied lessons, which would normally be confined to the first part of Matins. The texts, none of which had any other assignment, are perhaps to be understood as dramatic announcements of the principal themes of three of the most most important occasions of the year. The first, ‘Before [I made] the Morning Star I begot you v. The Lord said to my Lord [i.e., God said to Jesus]: Sit at my right hand’,Footnote 80 is an expression of God's favour towards the Christmas child. The second is for Epiphany, whose principal theme is the beginning of the public life of Jesus: ‘The Lord [Jesus] is God, and he has appeared to us v. Appoint a solemn day [to commemorate this], even to the horn of the altar.’Footnote 81 The responsory for Holy Saturday (summing up, on the last day, the sorrows of Holy Week) is ‘The Lord, the good shepherd, lays down his life for his sheep v. He was wounded because of our sins, struck down because of our transgressions, led like a lamb to the slaughter.’Footnote 82 None of these added responsories had any other Ambrosian assignment, and none is found in the CANTUS lists.

After Vespers on Wednesdays in Lent, on the Wednesday of the three-day Litany, and on Good Friday

On Wednesdays in Lent (except in Holy Week) three penitential responsoriesFootnote 83 were added after the conclusion of Vespers. They may, like the gradalia and the Confitemini (and other items as well) belong to a stratum of the office that predated Gregorian influence. There is no suggestion that readings were involved.Footnote 84 The ordinal provides a description that must also, mutatis mutandis, apply to Good Friday:Footnote 85

On Wednesday [in Lent] at Vespers, after the prayer that follows the Magnificat, [the priest] says ‘Dominus vobiscum’; then a senior (major) deacon, goes to the corner of the altar and sings there the [first] responsory in the same manner as the others, [i.e.] the chief lector himself indicating [who is to sing] and intoning [?] if necessary.Footnote 86 A second deacon follows for the second responsory, [and] similarly a third for the third.Footnote 87

Most of the chants sung after the Magnificat on Wednesdays in Lent have no other assignment. The two exceptions are those reassigned to the final day of the Litany. On this Wednesday (as though it were in Lent), three extra responsories were sung at the corner of the altar after the Magnificat. These appear to be part of a later revision that was not clearly thought out: I mentioned earlier that the three-day litany actually concluded before Vespers on the third day.Footnote 88 Moreover (another sign of ad hoc revision?), the provisions for Vespers on this Wednesday were left incomplete in most copies of the Manuale; only in Magistretti's Ms M is a third responsory cued.Footnote 89

The texts of the three chants sung by deacons on Good Friday after Vespers, just before the Solemn Prayers (Orationes solemnes) are among the most powerful Scriptural expressions of sorrow and repentence:

I was like an innocent lamb led unknowing to sacrifice; my enemies plotted against me saying, Come, let us put wood in his bread that we might remove him from the land of the living (v.) Rise up, Lord, anticipate them and subvert those who plot against me saying [repetendum] Come let us put . . .Footnote 90

Lament, O Jerusalem, lay aside your joyful garments, put on sackcloth and ashes because for you was slain the saviour of Israel (v.) Sing the bitter plaint of mourning for the only-begotten [repetendum] Because for you . . .Footnote 91

The veil of the temple is torn and the whole earth trembles; the thief cries out from the cross, saying, Remember me, Lord, when you come into your kingdom (v.) God have mercy on me, pity me, for I trust my soul to you [repetendum] Remember me . . .Footnote 92

None of these responsories is found in the CANTUS lists.

For the teaching of the Creed

After Mass on the Saturday in traditio Symbolum (the day before Palm Sunday) there was a remarkable ceremony during which the catechumens (preparatory to their baptism a week later) were taught the Creed (Symbolum). This dramatic ritual, culminating in an unusually elaborate responsory, is described in some detail in the ordinal:

For the teaching of the Creed all the bells should be rung after mass, and all the doors shut (excluding no one, however, but the catechumens). And the priest of the week, wearing an orario [perhaps a kind of stole] and a cape gives the greeting [‘Dominus vobiscum’], and [two] deacons [of the week] in order of precedence (and also wearing the orario) proclaim [alternately?]: ‘If anyone [here] is a catechumen he must leave.’ ‘If anyone is a Jew, he must leave.’ ‘If anyone is a pagan, he must leave.’ ‘If anyone is a heretic, he must leave.’ ‘If anyone has no proper reason [to be here], he must leave.’ . . . When these [proclamations] are finished, the responsory Venite filii is sung ‘with the boys’.Footnote 93

After this long chant was finished, the doors of the church were opened and the catechumens were admitted.

Venite filii is entered in the Manuale as follows:

Venite filii, audite me, timorem domini docebo vos v. [sic] Venite filii, audite me, timorem domini docebo vos v. Benedicam dominum in omni tempore, semper laus eius in ore meo, venite*, [repetendum:] Venite [filii, audite me, timorem domini docebo vos] v. In domino laudabitur anima mea, audiant mansueti et laetentur, [venite*?] [repetendum:] Venite [filii audite . . .] v. Gloria patri et filio et spiritui sancto et nunc et semper, et in saecula saeculorum amen, venite* [repetendum:] Venite [filii audite . . .].Footnote 94

Note that the repetition of the caput is specified (it is labelled ‘v’) before the first of the actual verses, and that the cue for the repetendum after each verse (including the third, which is a doxology), is to the beginning of the caput.

There is a singular feature of this responsory: the dramatic addition of the word venite, presumably meant to be sung at the end of each verse.Footnote 95 (I have added asterisks to mark these in the citation above from the Manuale.) This added word, a quasi-refrain, is not found in Psalm 33, and (as the antiphoners make clear) its melodic setting is not the same as that of venite, the first word of the caput.

After the baptisms on Holy Saturday

After the baptisms were concluded, the archbishop himself sang a responsory referring to the place in which he stood: ‘[These are] the eternal waters of the sacred font where [the baptised] are renewed, alleluia v. Happy are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered’.Footnote 96 Following is the description in the ordinal:

Next, after the conclusion of mass [in the Ambrosianum],Footnote 97 the archbishop returns to the [church of St John] ‘at the font’. Vested in a cope he says ‘Dominus vobiscum’; the prayer Celebratis atque perfectis follows; [then] the responsory Sacri fontis, which the archbishop is to sing with elevated voice (and the verse similarly).Footnote 98

Then, as we read in the ordinal, ‘follows the procession from the baptistry to the Winter Church . . . psallentium, Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia v. Beati quorum, and the rest of the verses. While the psallentium is being sung’.Footnote 99

Psallentium is one of the Ambrosian words for procession,Footnote 100 so the words ‘while the psallentium is being sung’ make no sense. Moreover, there seems to be some uncertainty about the genre of the chant at issue (the last of the long series of chants considered in this article). It is not identified in the ordinal or in the Manuale, although in Vimercate DFootnote 101 it is designated ‘’. The first section of the chant, Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia (this is the full text) is followed by a selection of verses (1–5, 8, 16) from Psalm 31, plus a doxology followed by a repetition of the opening section. The verses are set to a psalm-tone that features recitation on one pitch with a cursive median cadence involving the five syllables before the caesura, and a final cadence set cursively to the last four syllables. These are typical features of an Ambrosian festal psalm-tone. The fact is, Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia v. Beati quorum is not a responsory at all. It is likely that ‘psallentium’ in the rubric just given is a misreading of the abbreviation, ‘ps’, and that was what was meant was psallenda – a processional antiphon. For such antiphons only rarely is psalm recitation specified: the present example is a valuable instance.

* * *

To contribute to an issue of Plainsong and Medieval Music commemorating the astonishing achievements of Michel Huglo is a great honour and also an act of gratitude. His Fonti e paleografia del canto ambrosiano of 1956 introduced me to what became a life-long interest. All knew him as the dean of chant studies, the dean of us all, but almost as many knew him as a generous and sympathetic friend. He is greatly missed.

Footnotes

1 The Antiphonale missarum and Liber vesperalis, both published in Rome.

2 It is clear from the variation found in the antiphoners that the differentiae were not included in the archetype.

3 See Bailey, Terence, ‘Ambrosian Choral Psalmody: The Formulae’, Rivista internazionale di musica sacra, 1/3 (1980), 300–28.

4 Manuale ambrosianum: ex codice saec. XI olim in usum canonicae Vallis Travaliae, ed. Marco Magistretti (Milan, 1904–5) (available online).

5 Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana (I-Ma), Trotti 414. Natale Giglione would date this manuscript to the ninth century: Trotti 414: un codice ambrosiano del IX secolo, Considerazioni storico-paleografiche e musicali edizione, Quaderni Ambrosiani 2 (Lucca, 2009).

6 By Gregorian I mean the Roman liturgy as it was adapted by the Franks.

7 Albi, Bibliothèque municipale Rochegude (F-AI) 44.

8 Paris, Bibliothèque nationale (BnF) lat. 17436.

9 The Manuale and Albi 44 both contain the texts of the Mass and office.

10 One other responsory is assigned to second Vespers of the first Sunday of Advent; a few more to the lesser hours, but these, presumably (the manuscript contains only text), are responsoria brevia.

11 It seems hopeless to try for precise numbers (see below, Footnote note 27). If the figures I give are considered nearly exact, they will usually serve just as well.

12 The term responsorium is normally reserved for chants of the office. In the Ambrosian Mass the corresponding chant, identical in form, is called psalmellus (respond-gradual in the Gregorian). There are rare exceptions. Sixteen chants identified as responsories are assigned in the funeral office ‘after the washing of the corpse’; eleven of these have other assignments. Six are assigned to Masses in Holy Week, where (as might be expected) the service books change their designation to psalmelli. Two others, however, were sung (later, at least) in the funeral Mass, where Qui suscitasti Lazarum (assigned for an extra reading) is identified as a responsory, and Libera me domine is assigned as the offertory chant. These two reassignments, especially the egregious use of Libera me as an offerenda (Suñol, 1935), are clearly the result of the late revisions of the penitential Masses. For more on the matter of these Masses, see Bailey, Terence, ‘Ambrosian Mass Chants before the Carolingian Intervention’, Plainsong and Medieval Music, 21 (2012), 1–21.

13 As, for example, the responsories ‘in the baptistry’: Declara super nos, Ecce veniet dominus protector, Eripe me de inimicis meis . . . et, Laudate nomen domini, Ne derelinquas me, Paratus esto Israel . . . quia . . . venturum, etc.

14 Caput, i.e., head (in the sense of beginning) is a useful term employed in the Ambrosian ordinal. The term respond has been too widely applied, used (not without risk of confusion) to refer to the whole responsory, to the first part of a responsory, and to the response to a versicle (e.g., ‘Dominus vobiscum’ and the reply ‘Et cum spiritu tuo’).

15 Lux lucis verbum, the responsory after the first hymn at Matins on Christmas, has three verses; Venite filii audite, sung after Mass on the Saturday ‘in traditione Symbolum’, has three verses plus a doxology (Manuale, 56, 169).

16 Didascalia et constitutiones apostolorum, ed. F.X. von Funk (Paderborn, 1906); Apostolic Constitutions II, 57, 5–7. The translation above is by McKinnon, James, Music in Early Christian Literature (Cambridge, 1987), item 233, 108–9. I have added the words in square brackets.

17 Matutinis horis lectum est, ut meministis, fratres, quod summo animi dolore respondebamus: Deus, venerunt gentes in hereditatem tuam. Letter 20 (online at Biblioteca Augustana: http://www.hs-augsburg.de).

18 This is widely suggested. See The Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. ‘Responsorium’, for example.

19 Beroldus, sive ecclesiae ambrosianae mediolanensis kalendarium et ordines, Saec. XII, ed. Marco Magistretti (Milan, 1894). The ordinal was compiled shortly after 1126 by Beroldus, a minor cleric at the principal cathedral, but inconsistencies demonstrate what would anyway be taken for granted: that the book incorporated much that was older.

20 Beroldus, 40.

21 In the case of Milan, readings are not, as a rule, specified in the Manuale. Definitive lists were no doubt to be found elsewhere, but none that is complete survives for the Ambrosian Office of the eleventh to fifteenth century.

22 Perceived ‘references’ to the saints of the Christian era in the psalms or other Old Testament texts might be serendipitous, but could not have been intended.

23 The Ambrosian matutinae combined the night office and what in Gregorian regions would be called Lauds.

24 Vigiliae, an idiosyncratic Ambrosian Office for the saints’ feasts, began like the Jewish Sabbath on the day before the date assigned in the calendar (notionally at sundown). So, for example, the feast of St Martin, assigned the calendar date 11 November, began in the afternoon of November 10.

25 No responsory followed the analogous hymn in the Gregorian or Benedictine night office. And no responsory followed the second, closing, hymn of the Ambrosian Matins, whether general (e.g., Splendor paternae on Sundays) or proper (such as Illuminans altissimus on Epiphany). Manuale, 80, 90.

26 I will not normally comment on who it was who sang (we should rather say began) the responsories; his rank varied, from the archbishop himself to a cleric of the lowest grade. Generally speaking, the greater the occasion, the more important the singer.

27 It must be kept in mind that such numbers often include chants that have other, different, assignments, and are therefore included in other totals. The amount of detail in the service books notwithstanding, the usage is not always entirely clear, and it must be assumed that some assignments not mentioned were simply taken for granted.

28 The responsories of Vigils are always entered, but the associated hymns are scarcely ever mentioned in the service books. In the Manuale, there are only two relevant entries. The first for the feast of St Andrew, Miraculum laudabile, is specified at the Ambrosianum (where the office of Vigils began), this hymn is followed by the responsory Posui adiutorium super potentem v. Nihil proficiet (Manuale, 120). The second is for the feast of St Michael in Monte Gargano: ‘Hymnus ad vig[ilias], Mysteriorum signifer, subd[iaconile] Factum est silentium’ (Manuale, 357).

29 Ecce magnum et (Matins and Vigils of the Deposition of St Martin), Ecce vir splendidus (Matins and Vigils of St John Evangelist), Factum est silentium (Matins and Vigils of the feast of the Dedication of St Michael in Monte Gargano and also at Mass as the offerenda for the same feast). This last transgressive assignment suggests the ‘ad hocery’ of a late revision.

30 ‘In vigilia festivitatum’, ‘ubi festum celebratur’ (Beroldus, 63, 64).

31 The position of the singers of the responsories sung at the stational churches is not recorded.

32 Presbyter stans post altare deosculetur illud et dicit ‘Dominus vobiscum’, et puer magistri scholarum semper canit lucernaria minora . . . Majora vero lucernaria terminarius lector ebdomadarius canit. Finito lucernario, iterum dicit ‘Dominus vobiscum’; et primicerius cum lectoribus canit antiphonam in choro, sicut consuetudo est. Deinde presbyter vadit ante altare et salutat, et incipit hymnum; . . . tunc incipit chorus hymnum. Et quando lector canit lucernarium, magister scholarum canit hymnum cum pueris alternatim cum choro. . . . Finito hymno, presbyter dicit: ‘Dominus vobiscum’, et lector [terminarius] ebdomadarius canit , excepto quando est cum pueris (Beroldus, 64).

33 The performance of the gradalia and the Confitemini is discussed more fully below.

34 See the rubric just below. Repetendum usually refers to the last part of the caput, but occasionally the whole of the first section was repeated after the verse.

35 See, below, the wording of the rubric concerning the Confitemini.

36 sed finitis duodecim kyrie terminarius . . . canit gradale responsorium leni voce caput et versum, et chorus similiter; . . . in ceteris diebus, quando canitur graduale, minor lector semper canit illud leni voce, et tantum [recte: iterum?] caput, et chorus similiter (Beroldus, 85).

37 puer magistri scholarum . . . cantat Confitemini . . . caput et versum, et iterum caput. Et magister scholarum similiter cum pueris (Beroldus, 54).

38 Hanssens, J-M, ed., Amalari episcopi opera liturgica omnia (Rome, 1948–50), 3:155; see Hiley, David, Western Plainchant: A Handbook (Oxford, 1993), 73.

39 ‘quod semel repetitur ante versum’ (Beroldus, 162, n. 32).

40 Minor magister chori sive scholarum cantat primum versum solus in pulpito stans in medio puerorum; . . . magister cum pueris respondet; . . . versus debet dicere magister scolarum solus qui dixit primum. (The ellipses in the extract are Magistretti's.)

41 As in the case of Canite initio mensis and Venite filii audite (see below).

42 On Sundays and holidays, a notary usually sang; on ordinary weekdays an officiating deacon (Manuale, 56).

43 This additional direction is given in the Manuale, but only in Magistretti's Ms. M (a copy from the thirteenth century, intended for the summer cathedral). See Manuale, 83: ‘quod [the responsory] canere debet magister cantorum [i.e., scholarum]’. The participation of the boys (infantes) can be explained by the occasion: the octave of Christmas is also the commemoration of the circumcision of the infant Jesus on the seventh day after his birth.

44 There, the two readings were each followed by a responsory.

45 Except the last, when the Te deum was sung instead, but this is probably a late substitution. In the Rule of St Benedict, a responsory and the Te deum are both sung after the last lesson (RB ch.12: ‘then a lesson from the Apocalypse to be recited by heart, the responsory, the Ambrosian hymn [Te Deum]’).

46 Vespers of the saint were sung at the stational church, but it seems likely that the office was also sung in the cathedral by the ‘off duty’ clergy (the observatores, those on the roster for the following week) who remained behind. That was certainly the practice on other occasions when it was necessary for the clergy to be in two places: at the end of Matins and Vespers, when the duty clergy (the ordinarii) went in procession to the baptistries, observatores concluded the office in the chancel for those that remained in the cathedral.

47 There were two cathedrals, one for the winter and one for the summer. These were razed in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to make way for the present enormous Duomo and its precincts. On saints’ festivals (the reason is not obvious), Terce was always sung in the winter church: ‘In vigiliis sanctorum, quando ordinarii canunt psalmos, semper canunt tertiam in ecclesia hyemali, deinde proficiscuntur ad festum cum processione’ (Beroldus, 57).

48 In vigilia s. Simpliciani . . . duobus notariis, qui legunt lectiones in psalmis, et tertio, qui legit primam lectionem ad vigiliam, et notario qui cantat primum in psalmis, et secundicerio qui canit secundum in psalmis, et alii notario qui canit secundum in vigilia, et lectori qui canit tertium ad vigiliam, istis septem, v per unumquemque dantur denarii (Beroldus, 28).

49 ‘et si lectiones leguntur in vigilia’ (Beroldus, 59). The term ‘in vigilia’ is, of course, ambiguous, but in the ordinal the passage comes under the general heading de vigiliis festivitatum. In any case, since in the Middle Ages there were no readings at Vespers, and there were always readings at Matins, it would seem that the ‘if’ in this citation can refer only to the office of Vigils.

50 ‘On all these [saints’] feasts [the clergy], when they return, come in procession [back] to the winter church singing a psallenda (in his omnibus festis, quando revertuntur, veniunt cum processione in ecclesiam hyemalem cum psallenda)’ (Beroldus, 58). In this rubric psallenda may also mean ‘with singing’ or ‘singing psalms’.

51 It seems that on this occasion there was neither a procession of the clergy from the winter cathedral (the clergy simply assembled in the Ambrosianum), nor from this church back to the cathedral.

52 Extra stations and responsories are specified in the Manuale for nine festivals: those of St Andrew, the Ordination of St Ambrose, Sts Protasius and Gervasius, Sts Peter and Paul, Sts Nabor and Felix, Sts Nazarius and Celsus, for the combined feast of the Holy Machabees with the Deposition of St Eusebius, for St Lawrence, and for the combined feast of the Translation of Sts Sissinius and Alexander with the Deposition of St Simplicianus.

53 Magistretti's Ms M (Manuale, 247 et seq.) is known to have been used in the summer cathedral.

54 See Manuale, 454 (cf. 447, 448, 450, etc.). Cf. Beroldus, 90.

55 Manuale, 454.

56 The Gregorian counterpart, the Major Litany, was held on the three days before Ascension. Both usages situated these penitential exercises within the joyous season of Eastertide (which did not conclude until Pentecost).

57 Vespers of the first two days were considered part of the litany, but Vespers on the last day was not: the sequential cursus of psalms was resumed and the commune chant for Wednesdays was assigned as responsorium in choro. The responsories sung at Vespers on Day 1 and Day 2 had no other assignment.

58 Almost all were allocated to various weekdays in Lent – but, additionally, Domine miserere nobis et libera to the octave of Christmas, and Convertimini ad me to Sexagesima, no doubt replacing a chant from the Commune dominicarum. Indeed, in almost every case it may be assumed that the secondary assignments, no doubt casually made, replaced chants from the Commune. The assignment of Domine miserere for the octave of Christmas was certainly not casual, although not to be explained by its penitential text. The verse (Qui regis Israel intende) – like the first of the responsoria inter lectiones on the same day (Tua est potentia, tuum regnum) – refers to the Kingdom of God on earth. And it must also be significant that the verse of the re-assigned penitential responsory echoes the opening words, Intende qui regis Israel, of St Ambrose's hymn for the Christmas season. The complete hymn text is available online on the Biblioteca Augustana website, https://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost04/Ambrosius/amb_hymn.html#4 (accessed 20 August 2015).

59 Examples of such texts will be given later.

60 It might seem that the office of Vigils would displace the visits to the baptistries after Vespers on saints’ feasts, since a procession set out after Terce from the cathedral to the stational church (see Footnote note 47), where among other observances a Vespers Mass, and the offices of Vespers and Vigils were sung. But it appears that on saints’ feasts offices following Terce were also sung in the cathedral by those left behind: in the Manuale and in the antiphoners psallendae are entered after the items for Vespers, these presumably for the usual procession to the baptistries.

61 ‘Et vadunt in baptisterium; et in dominicis diebus et in solemnibus diebus, si responsorium habetur notarius canit, excepto’ (Beroldus, 56). The words ‘si responsorium habetur’ may refer to ordinary Sundays – no responsory in the baptistry is provided in the Commune dominicarum – or it may refer to the saints’ feasts (sollemnes dies), for which there was not usually a responsory in the baptistry. See below.

62 Alleluia v. Aedificans Ierusalem dominus (for Thursday in Easter Week), Alleluia v. Dominus regnavit decorem (for Tuesday in Easter Week), Alleluia v. Praeveniamus faciem eius (for the Saturday in Easter Week) and Alleluia v. Venite exsultemus domino (for Friday in Easter Week) are properly Mass alleluias. Counted in the sixty-nine are Ecce veniet dominus, Gaudete filiae Sion . . . vobis and Protector noster veni; although these three are also assigned with lessons in the feriae de exceptato, this is probably owing to a late revision by Beroldus himself in the twelfth century (see Magistretti's, ‘Praefatio’ in Beroldus, ix). Included also (although its primary assignment cannot be determined) is Haec est domus domini aedificata firmiter, sung in the baptistry on the feast of the Minor Dedication (that of the lesser cathedral), but sung with lessons at Vigils on the same occasion and on the feast of St Michael in monte Gargano.

63 At least one proper chant is entered in the antiphoners of the twelfth and thirteenth century for fifty-seven saints’ festivals; and several more are assigned prayers in the Manuale. Any number of others might, notionally, have been provided for ad hoc from the Commune sanctorum.

64 See just below. The antiphoners assign Pacem tuam da . . . quia, properly a responsorium inter lectiones from the Commune dominicarum in the baptistry after Vespers. Nothing is entered in the Manuale. This lapse in the Manuale, and the neutral text, make it clear that the principal assignment of Pacem tuam was in the Commune.

65 I mentioned earlier that nothing is entered for Feria IV.

66 See Footnote note 61.

67 ‘In cottidianis diebus anni circuli’ (Feriis II–VI, In die sabbati).

68 See Bailey, Terence, ‘The Ambrosian responsoria gradalia: Their place in the liturgy; the adaptation of a type-melody’, in Studies in Medieval Chant and Liturgy in Honour of David Hiley, ed. Bailey, Terence (Budapest-Ottawa2007), 3–28; idem, ‘A remnant of the Old-Ambrosian office?’, in Cantare amantis est: Festschrift zum 60. Geburtstag von Franz Karl Praßl (Purkersdorf, 2014), 28–35.

69 Beroldus, 85. In the antiphoners the gradalia are entered only in Lent, but it is clear they were sung on all feriae: ‘In feriis vero, quibus festum non habetur, excepto in albis in paschalibus, minor lectorum semper canit gradale post Kyrie’ (Beroldus, 44).

70 The rubrics, under the general heading ‘De Quadragesima’ (Manuale, 82) have obviously been complicated and confused by later revision; the citation that follows just below is under the general heading ‘De quadragesima’ and in a section prefaced by ‘Sed in dominicis diebus’ (Manuale, 82, 85), but there is no doubt (see Footnote note 68) that the gradalia were sung on weekdays only, and throughout the year.

71 The alternative is excelsa voce (‘with full voice’), apparently for more important occasions. See Beroldus, 41, 49, 51. etc.

72 In the ordinal, the word is tantum, i.e., only (cf. ‘Sequitur Gloria in excelsis Deo, et magister scholarum canit totam Gloriam, excepto in praecipuis solemnitatibus, quando canit tantum usque ad suscipe deprecationem nostram’, Beroldus, 49). I have assumed that iterum was intended: cf. the related rubric for the Confitemini, below.

73 Unus duorum minorum custodum ebdomadariorum portat illud per totam ecclesiam masculis et foeminis; deinde ille praebet thuribulum ebdomadario cicendelario ut reponat; et sic perficiunt officium matutini, sicut ordo expostulat, ad honorem et laudem dei. Sed finitis duodecim Kyrie . . . in ceteris diebus, quando canitur graduale, minor lector semper canit illud leni voce, [caput et versum] et tantum [recte: iterum?] caput, et chorus similiter (Beroldus, 85).

74 It appears that the responsorium gradale was sung before the officiating clergy set out in procession to the baptistries.

75 This was mentioned earlier. It appears that on ordinary weekdays the clergy conducted themselves to the baptistries in silence.

76 The text of the Thursday chant, Laudate nomen domini v. Qui statis in domo is found in Gregorian books set as a responsory, but the melody is different.

77 The alternative is ‘excelsa voce’ (Beroldus, 41, 49, 55, etc.).

78 Antequam tertia sonetur . . . puer magistri scholarum in sabbatis et in dominicis diebus et in praecipuis solemnitatibus vestitus camisiolo ascendit pulpitum et cantat Confitemini leni voce caput et versum et iterum caput. [See Footnote note 72.] Et magister scholarum similiter cum pueris suis leni voce in sabbatis, et in dominicis diebus tantum, et in Natale Domini et in sequentibus feriis, et in Epiphania, exceptis in sabbatis quadragesimae, et in Pascha usque ad octavam. Et idem magister semper stat extra cancellos ab initio Confitemini usque ad initium hymni prope pulpitum (Beroldus, 54). I have included the detail about the Master standing ‘outside the chancel near the pulpit’ because it makes clear that the pulpit was in the nave.

79 The Manuale (411) and some at least of the antiphoners (see Vimercate C, f. 197v) place this chant in the Commune dominicarum as the first lucernarium of Vespers. This scribal confusion was no doubt caused by the position of the chant outside the regular offices.

80 Ex utero ante luciferum genui te v. Dixit dominus domino, Sede a dextris meis.

81 Deus dominus et inluxit nobis v. Constituite solemnitatem in confrequentionibus usque ad cornu altaris.

82 Dominus pastor bonus animam suam ponit pro ovibus suis v. Vulneratus est propter peccata nostra; afflictus est propter scelera nostra; sicut ovis ad occisionem ductus est.

83 Following, as examples, are the first three, for the first week in Lent: 1. O God have pity on me according to your great mercy v. And in keeping with your many acts of compassion, wipe clean my iniquity (Miserere mei deus secundum magnam misericordian tuam v. Et secundum multitudinem miserationum tuarum dele iniquitatem meam); 2. Lord, remember not, you who are gentle as well as just, the sins of my youth v. For your name's sake will you forgive my sin, for it is manifold (Pecata iuventutis meae ne memor fueris, domine, quia tu domine suavis et rectus est v. Propter nomen tuum, domine, propitiaberis peccato meo; multum est enim); 3. Have mercy on me Lord, for I cry to you all the day long v. Give joy to the soul of me your servant, for it is lifted up unto you (Miserere mihi domine quoniam ad te clamavi tota die v. Laetifica animam servi tui quia ad te, domine, animam meam levavi).

84 In Lent, the Ambrosian liturgy, fatiguing as it must have been the rest of the year, was considerably augmented, no doubt as a special penitential duty. On weekdays, for example, extra readings from Genesis, accompanied by psalmelli, were added after (not during) Terce. It is conceivable, therefore (although there is nothing in the Manuale to suggest it and although readings were not customary at Vespers) that the three responsories on Wednesdays and on Good Friday were, or once were, associated with readings.

85 The Magnificat was not sung on Fridays in Lent.

86 The rubric may be corrupted; if not, we learn that the deacons might need help in remembering these extra chants.

87 Et notandum, quia in iv feria ad vesperum, finita oratione quae est post Magnificat [presbyter] dicit Dominus vobiscum; tunc major diaconus vadit ad cornu altaris et cantat ibi ad cornu altaris sicut in alia: primicerio lectorum indicante sibi et cantante, si opus ei fuerit. Alter vero diaconus subsequitur ad illud [recte aliud?] , tertius ad tertium simili modo (Beroldus, 89).

88 See Footnote note 57.

89 Fac nobiscum domine, which had been sung the previous day, was nevertheless re-assigned.

90 Eram quasi agnus innocens; ductus sum ad immolandum et nesciebam; consilium fecerunt inimici mei adversum me dicentes, Venite mittamus lignum in panem eius et conteramus eum de terra viventium v. Exurge domine praeveni eos et subverte illos qui cogitaverunt adversum me dicentes (venite). The text is strange. In Hebrew, Jeremiah 11:19 seems to mean something like: ‘let us destroy the tree with its fruit’.

91 Ierusalem luge et exue te vestibus iocunditatis; induere cinere cum cilicio quia in te est occisus salvator Israel v. Luctum unigeniti fac tibi planctum amarum (quia).

92 Velum templi scissum est et omnis terra tremuit; latro de cruce clamabat dicens, Memento mei, domine, dum veneris in regnum tuum v. Miserere mei deus, miserere mei, quoniam in te confidit anima mea (memento).

93 In traditione symboli omnia tintinnabula sunt sonanda, finita missa, et cuncta ostia claudenda; tamen nullus expellendus nisi cathecumeni. Et presbyter ebdomadarius cum orario et cappa retro altare salutat et diaconi per ordinem cum orario dicunt has voces: Si quis cathecumenus, procedat. Si quis judaeus, procedat. Si quis paganus, procedat, Si quis haereticus, procedat. Cujus cura non est, procedat. . . . His dictis cantatur cum infantibus: Venite filii (Beroldus, 94–5).

94 Manuale, 169. ‘Come children, hear me; I will teach you to fear the Lord v. [sic] Come children, hear me; I will teach you to fear the Lord v. I will ever bless the Lord, his praise always on my lips, come* [then the repetendum:] Come [children, hear me; I will teach you to fear the Lord] v. In [praising] the Lord my soul shall be praised; let the meek hear and rejoice, [come*?] [repetendum:] Come [children, hear me; I will teach you to fear the Lord] v. Glory to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever, through all eternity, amen, come* [repetendum:] Come [children, hear me; I will teach you to fear the Lord].’

95 In the Vimercate antiphoners the extra venite is inserted only twice, before the repetendum after the last verse (In domino laudabitur), and after the doxology.

96 Sacri fontis aqua perennis, ubi renovantur, alleluia v. Beati quorum remissae sunt iniquitates et quorum tecta sunt peccata.

97 Immediately after the baptisms were concluded, the the archbishop left the baptistry of the winter church on horseback to say Mass in the basilica of St Ambrose; it was the anniversary of the day the the great saint ‘departed this life’ (‘In hoc die migravit ex hoc seculo’). Ambrose died on Holy Saturday in 397.

98 Deinde, finita missa, archiepiscopus revertitur ad fontes, indutus pluviali dicit ‘Dominus vobiscum’. Sequitur oratio Celebratis atque perfectis. Sequitur , quod archiepiscopus debet cantare excelsa voce ad cornu altaris, Sacri fontis, et versum similiter (Beroldus, 113). It is not clear whether this responsory was doubled. How would one find a chorus of clerics with the same rank as the archbishop to repeat what he had sung?

99 sequitur processio a fontibus in ecclesiam hyemalem . . . psallentium: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia v. Beati quorum, et ceteri versus. Dum psallentium cantatur (Beroldus, 113).

100 Cf. Beroldus, 125: ‘finito evangelium archiepiscopus cum toto clero vadit ad ecclesiam s. Simpliciani . . . Finito psallentio in atrio ejusdem ecclesia’ (when the gospel is finished the archbishop goes with the entire clergy to the church of St Simpliciano . . . When the procession (psallentium) ends in the atrium of that church)’.

101 Folio 1. In Vimercate C and in the earlier copies of the pars aestiva the first page is either missing or illegible.

note 27
note 47
note 61
note 68
note 72
note 57