Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/550

 PROSE

484

PROSE

the text had almost exclusively the character of prose, the strophes being dissimilar and the verses of un- equal length, of different structure, and without rhyme or regular rhythm. These latter are therefore called the sequences of the first epoch; none have been preserved in the liturgy of to-day.

(5) The transition from the sequences of the first to those of the second epoch occupied more than a century, viz. from the end of the tenth, when the change made itself visible here and there, to the beginning of the twelfth, when the new style reached its perfection. Sequences with more or less numerous traces of the transition process are so numerous that they may be placed in a class by themselves. While maintaining the structure of sequences of the first epoch, these sequences add a greater or less degree of the element of rhyme (although not yet pure rh\Tne) and greater uniformity of rhjihm. They may be entitled sequences of the transitional style, not of the transitional period; for many sequences of the transitional period still bear the distinct stamp of the older ones, and moreover, when sequences of the second period were in high- est favour, some WTiters of proses utilized the structure of the earl}' period, while employing rhj'me according to the style of the second period. It should also be observed that not a few sequences are so verj' akin to those of the first, whilst others on the contrary are so nearly related to those of the second epoch, that it is very difficult to decide to what group they should be referred. A sharp line of division cannot be drawn, since the development from the older to later forms (sometimes in strong contrast with the first) was not only slow but steady, revealing no abrupt transition or change. A good example of the transition style is the Easter sequence which is still used, but now a little altered in the "Mis- sale Romanum", and which probably was composed by Wipo the Burgundian (d. after 104S): — -

1. Victimse paschali laudes immolent Christiani.

2a. Agnus redemit oves, 2b. Mors et ^■ita duello

Christus innocens Patri conflisere mirando.

reconciliavit dux vitas mortuus

peccatores. regnat \'ivu3.

3a. Die nobis, Maria, 3b. Angelicos testes,

quid \-idisti in via? sudarium et vestes.

Sepulcrum Christi viventis Surrexit Christus apes mea;

et gloriam vidi resurgentia. prsecedet suos in Gatilffia.

4a. Credendum est 4b. Scimus Christum

magis soli surreiisse

Marise veraci. a mortuis vera;

quam Judaeorum tu nobis, \'ictor,

turbse fallaci. Rex, i

(6) The final phase of the development is seen in the sequences of the second epoch already described, in which uniformity of rhythm, purity of rhyme, and strict regularity in structure characterize the verses, though the strophes still evince manifold variety. Not infrequently most (sometimes even all) of the pairs of strophes are composed of verses so uniform that the outward difference between these sequences and hymns, though not completely removed, is con- siderably lessened. The present sequence for Cor- pus Christi, composed by St. Thomas Aquinas in 1263, may serve as an example: —

la. Lauda Sion salvatorem. lb. Quantum potes, tantum

Lauda ducem et pastorem aude.

In hymnis et canticis. Quia major omni laude,

Nee laudare sufBcis.

If we institute a comparison between this and a strophe of a sequence of the first epoch and a strophe of the following hymn: —

I'ange lingua gloriosi

Corporis mysterium Sanguinisque pretiosi,

Quem in mundi pretium Fructus ventris generosi

Rex efTudit gentium

— it is at once evident how far the sequence strophe given above differs structurally from one of the first

epoch, and how nearly it approaches the form of the hjTnn strophe. With the latter, it has the same kind of verse with its masculine and feminine rhjTnea and a similar rhythm, the only difference being that the order of the catalectic and acatalectic verses is dissimilar. Moreover, in the Corpus Christi se- quence all the pairs of strophes are like the first, except that the tliird pair consists of a strophe and antistrophe each composed of six verses, of which the fourth and fifth introduce another rhythm, and the last two pairs of strophes increase the niunber of verses by one and two verses respectively. The three other sequences which remain in the liturgy — viz. the "Veni sancte Spiritus", "Stabat mater dolorosa", and "Dies irae dies ilia", of which the last two were originally rhymed prayers — show even greater, and in fact complete, .symmetry in all the strophes — the sequences for Whitsuntide and the requiem Mass show uniformitj- even in all the verses. In other respects, however, man^- sequences of the second epoch, despite their uniformity, evince such variety in the structure of the pairs of strophes that, in contrast with the monotony of the hymn, they present considerable diversity. But the element which is wanting in all of them is the connexion with the Alleluia-jubilus and its melody, and it is only in the repetition of the melody in the antistrophe and in the change of melody in the individual strophes that its origin from the jubilus can still be obser%'ed.

Of the above-mentioned six phases in the develop- ment of the sequence the first and second are very obscure in two respects, as regards (1) the appearance of the Alleluia-jubilus without the text and (2) its relation to the so-called Gregorian Alleluia. To answer the first question, we are naturally tempted to point to the fact that in some of the earliest tropers (e. g. Cod. Sangallen., 4S4), the Alleluia- jubilus has no text. It is quite true that melodies without text are found there, but the earlier opinion that these are melodies to which texts were sub- sequently added is not true: they are melodies to previous sequence-texts, as is shown in the intro- duction to "Anal, hymn.", LIII, pp. xxii sq. The expression "melodies without text" is liable to be, and in fact has been, misunderstood, and should be replaced by "melodies to an existing but unwritten text". No one has as yet found a single Alleluia jubilus without text, whence might have been deduced the existence of jubili in this form before the text and independent of it. The prior existence of such jubili must indeed be admitted, but no example has as yet been discovered, nor is the discovery of such jubili hereafter probable. For, in spite of long and careful research, no liturgical MS. with neuras or melodies has been discovered of a date earlier than the ninth century, with the one exception of a Pontifical of Poitiers (Cod. Parisin. Arsen., 227), which is either eighth- or ninth-century; even of the ninth century we have only one certain and three or four probable ones. One might hazard the opinion that it was only in the ninth centur\' that the melodies, which were previously known by heart, came to be inserted in the choir-books. In the ninth century, however, the textless AUeluia-jubili were already replaced by the versus ad sequenlias and many sequences; the form of the textless jubilus can be only provisionally conjectured on the basis of the jubili with the versus ad sequcntias (see above, II, 3).

For this reason it is still more difficult to give a decided answer to the second question as to the con- nexion between the jubilus, which forms the basis of the sequence-melodies, and the Gregorian Alleluia. If we take it for granted that the latter have been handed on unaltered and retain the original form in the oldest known .sources (though these do not go further back than the ninth century), in other words,