Rhythmical Office - Examples

Examples

An example of an old metrical office, intermixed with Prose Responses, is that of St. Lambert (Anal. Hymn., XXVII, no. 79), where all the antiphons are borrowed from that saint's Vitœ metricœ, presumably the work of Hucbald of St. Amand; the office itself was composed by Bishop Stephen of Liège about the end of the ninth century:

Antiphona I

Orbita solaris præsentia gaudia confert Præsulis eximii Lantberti gesta revolvens.

Antiphona II

Hic fuit ad tempus Hildrici regis in aula,

Dilectus cunctis et vocis famine dulcis.

A mixing of hexameters, of rhythmical stanzas, and of stanzas formed by unequal lines in rhymed prose is shown in the old Office of Rictrudis, composed by Hucbald about 907 (Anal. Hymn., XIII, no. 87). By the side of regular hexameters, as in the Invitatorium:

Rictrudis sponso sit laus et gloria, Christo,

Pro cuius merito iubilemus ei vigilando.

we find rhythmical stanzas, like the first antiphon to Lauds:

Beata Dei famula

Rictrudis, adhuc posita

In terris, mente devota

Christo hærebat in æhra;

or stanzas in very free rhythm, as e. g., the second response to the first nocturn:

Hæc femina laudabilis

Meritisque honorabilis

Rictrudis egregia

Divina providentia

Pervenit in Galliam,

Præclaris orta natalibus,

Honestis alta et instituta moribus.

From the metrical offices, from the pure as well as from those mixed with rhymed prose, the transition was soon made to such as consisted of rhymed prose merely. An example of this kind is in the Offices of Ulrich, composed by Abbot Berno of Reichenau (d. 1048); the antiphon to the Magnificat of the first Vespers begins thus:

Venerandi patris Wodalrici sollemnia

Magnæ jucunditatis repræsentant gaudia,

Quæ merito cleri suscipiuntur voto

Ac populi celebrantur tripudio.

Lætetur tellus tali compta præsule,

Exsultet polus tanto ditatus compare;

Solus dæmon ingemat, qui ad eius sepulcrum

Suum assidue perdit dominium ... etc.

Much more perfectly developed on the other hand, is the rhythm in the Office, which Leo IX composed in honour of Gregory the Great (Anal. Hymn., V, no. 64). This office, the work of a pope, appeared in the eleventh century in the Roman breviaries, and soon enjoyed widespread circulation; all its verses are iambic dimeters, but the rhythm does not as yet coincide with the natural accent of the word, and many a verse has a syllable in excess or a syllable wanting. For example, the first antiphon of the first nocturn:

Gregorius ortus Romæ

E senatorum sanguine

Fulsit mundo velut gemma

Auro superaddita,

Dum præclarior præclaris

Hic accessit atavis.

This transitional author does not make use of pure rhyme, only of assonance, the precursor of rhyme.

A prominent example is the Office of the Trinity by Archbishop Pecham of Canterbury.

The first Vespers begins with the antiphons:

Sedenti super solium

Congratulans trishagium

Seraphici clamoris

Cum patre laudat filium

Indifferens principium

Reciproci amoris.

Sequamur per suspirium,

Quod geritur et gaudium

In sanctis cæli choris;

Levemus cordis studium

In trinum lucis radium

Splendoris et amoris.

Compare with the preceding the antiphons to the first nocturn, which have quite a different structure; the third of them is:

Leventur cordis ostia:

Memoria Giguenti

Nato intelligentia,

Voluntas Procedenti.

Again, the first response to the third nocturn:

Candor lucis, perpurum speculum

Patris splendor, perlustrans sæculum,

Nubis levis intrans umbraculum

In Ægypti venit ergastulum.

Virgo circumdedit virum

Mel mandentem et butyrum.

upon which follows as second response the picture of the Trinity in the following form:

A Veterani facie manavit ardens fiuvius:

Antiquus est ingenitus, et facies est Filius,

Ardoris fluxus Spiritus, duorum amor medius.

Sic olim multifarie

Prophetis luxit Trinitas,

Quam post pandit ecclesiæ

In carne fulgens veritas.