Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/50

 RHYTHMICAL

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RHYTHMICAL

{Reimofficium) has been adopted in Germany through the "Analecta Hymnica". The term does not give absolute satisfaction, because the first and oldest offices are without rhyme, and cannot very well be called rhymed offices. In the Middle Ages the word "rhj-thmical" was used as the general term for any kind of poetn.' to be distinguished from prose, no matter whether there was regular rhythm in those p>oems or not. And for that reason it is practical to comprise in the name "rh>-thmical offices" all those which are other than pure prose, a designation corresponding to the "Historia rhj-tmata".

Apart from the predilection of the Middle Ages for the poetic form, the Vitcc melricce of the saints were the point of departure and motive for the rh\-thmical offices. Those Vitce were frequently composed in hexameters or distichs. From them various couples of hexameters or a distich were taken to be used as antiphon or response respectively. In case the hexameters of the VitoR mctriccE did not prove suitable enough, the lacking parts of the office were supplemented by simple prose or by means of verses in rhymed prose, i. e., by texi, lines of different length in which there was very little of rhythm, but simply assonance. Such offices are often a motley mixture of hexameters, rhythmical stanzas, stanzas in pure prose, and again in rhymed prose. An example of an old metrical office, intermixed with Prose Re- sponses, is that of St. Lambert. (Anal. Hymn., XXVII, no. 79), where all the antiphons are borrowed from that saint's Vitce melricae, presumably the work of Hucbald of St. Amand; the office itself was com- posed by Bishop Stephen of Liege about the end of the ninth century:

Antiphona I : Orbita Solaris praesentia gaudia confert Prajsulis eximii Lantberti gesta revolvens. Antiphona II: Hie 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 Invita- torium:

Rictrudis sponso sit laus et gloria, Christo, Pro cuius merito iubilemus ei vigilando. we find rhythmical stanzas, like the first antiphon (o Lauds:

Beat a Dei famula

Rictrudis, adhuc posita

In terris, mente devota

Christo hierebat in ajfhra; or KlanzaH in very fret; rhythm, as e. g., the second response to the first nocturn:

Ha;c femina laudabilia

Merit isque honorabilis

Rictnidis egregia

Divina i)rovidf'nf ia

Pf-rvcnif in Galliam,

Prajclaris orta natalibuH,

Honf^tis alt a et instituta moribus. P'rcim (he metrical offices, from the pure as well as from thow! mixed with rhymed prose, the transition was wxm ma^le to such a« fonsistefi of rhymod prose m«Tely. An examt)le of this kind is in the Offices of Ulrich, c/>mpf>wd by AV>bot Bfrno of Reichenau (d. 104S;; the antiphon to the Magnificat of the first VcHpera begins thus:

Venerandi patris Wodalrici sollemnia Magna- jurunfJitatiH reprawnfant gaudia, Qiia; merito dcri KUKcii»ninf ur vfjto Ac populi fflflirantur tripudio. lifpfHur \f\\\\H tali fompla pra'sule, Kx«iil1c< iKiluK lanto <litatUH (u»mpare; Solus da-mori ingf-mat, f|iii w\ c-ius sepuhTUKi Suum asbidue ixjrdit 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. Hj^mn., 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 Romse E senatorum sanguine Fulsit mundo velut gemma Auro superaddita, Dum prajclarior praeclaria Hie accessit atavis. This author does not yet make use of pure rhyme, but only of assonance, the precursor of rhyme. Hence we have before us an example of transition from offices of the first epoch to those of the second. With these latter the highest development of the rhythmical office is reached. It is marvellous how in many offices of this artistic period, in spite of all symmetry in rhythm and rhyme, the greatest variety exists in the structure of the stanzas, how a smooth and refined language matches the rich contents full of deep ideas, and how the individual parts are joined together in a complete and most striking pic- ture of the saint or of the mystery to be celebrated. A prominent example is the Office of the Trinity by Archbishop Pecham of Canterbury. The first Vespers begins with the antiphons:

(1) Sedenti super solium Congratulans trishagium

Seraphici clamoris Cum patre laudat filium Indiflferens principium

Reciproci amoris.

(2) Sequamur per suspirium, Quod geritur et gaudium

In Sanctis cajli choris; Levemus cordis studium In trinum lucis radium Splendoris et amoris. It. is interesting to compare with the prec^eding the antiphons to the first nocturn, which have quite a different structure; the third of them exhibits the profound thought:

Leventur cordis ostia: Memoria Giqnenli Nnlo intelligontia. Voluntas Proccdcnli. again the first response to the tliird nocturn: Candor lucis, perpurum speculum Patris splendor, perlustrans sa;culum, Nubis levis intrans umbraculum In ^]gypti venit ergasfulum. Virgo (lircumdedit virum Mel mandentem et butyrum. upon which follows as second response the beautiful picture of the Trinity in tlie following form:

A Vctcrani facie manavit aniens fluvius: Antiqwus est ingenitus, et facies est Filius, Ardoris fluxus Spiritus, duorum amor medius. Sic olim multifarie Prophetis luxit Trinitas, Quam post pandit ecclcsia; In came fulgens Veritas.

n. 1 1 ISTORY AND SiGNIFICANCK. — It CaHHOt be dcfl-

iiit(!ly stated which of the three old abbeys: Priim, Laiifievennec, or Saint-Amand can claim priority in eomf)osing a rhythmical office. There is no doubt liowever thai Saint-Amand and the monasteries in Hairiault, Flanders, and Brabant, was the nuil start- ing-point of this style of poetry, as long ago as the