Improperies
The improperies or lamentations of the Savior (from Latin improperium : reproach, scolding) are chants in the liturgy of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Church. They have been part of the celebration of Christ's suffering and death on Good Friday since the early Middle Ages . Wherever devotions are held at the hour of Jesus' death in Protestant, mostly Lutheran , churches , they can be sung.
Emergence
The first occidental source for the improperies can be found in the Mozarabic Liber Ordinum from the 7th century. The contents come from the Old Testament and were put into Jesus' mouth. They are related to Syrian and Greek Good Friday chants.
Originally, the veneration of the cross was performed quietly on Good Friday, but in the Franconian region during the 9th century the triple Trisagion (Ἅγιος ὁ Θεός Hagios ho Theos ) was combined with the improperies and sung before the veneration of the cross. There they also formed the liturgical framework for the Great Intercessions that followed . These were carried out according to the same scheme since the 8th century, only the Good Friday intercession for the Jews was differentiated by omitting the kneeling and the common name .
The term improperia can only be found in the Roman Missal of 1474, as it does not belong to the original Gregorian gradual .
construction
The improperies are divided into the large and the small improperies that follow each other during the veneration of the cross. At the beginning the priest , the deacon or the cantor starts the popule meus , which is a lament of the Savior to his faithless people.
The great improperies consist of three verses, "Popule meus / Quia eduxi te / Quid ultra debui", each performed by a lead singer, followed by the responsive answer of the Schola "Hagios ho Theos". The verse of the cantor consists of two parts each. In the first part, one or more acts of salvation of God in his people are named (including the liberation from Egyptian captivity, which in turn is linked directly to the Easter vigil); this is contrasted with an outrage by the people of God during the Passion .
Then the little improperies are sung, which consist of nine antithetical verses sung by two cantors, alternating with “Ego” (I) and “Et tu” (but you / you), and each with a “Popule meus” from the Schola follows. The resulting accusation of the Savior is shorter than in the great improperia. Due to the verses of the same length and the regular alternation of the beginnings of "Ego" and "Tu", the small improperies are structured more regularly.
In the hymn book Gotteslob (Austria), song 822 is the version of the improperia that was transferred by Markus Fidelis Jäck in 1817 (“O you my people, what did I do to you?”). The character of the chant is retained, but simplified by only distinguishing between Schola and all other people present. In contrast, there is no division into large and small improperies; In addition, the textual order is partially changed, and some passages are also completely omitted.
text
| Original Latin text based on the Graduale Romanum 1973 |
German translation based on the Schott missal |
Rhymed transfer by Markus Fidelis Jäck 1817 |
|---|---|---|
|
I. |
I. |
1. |
|
Quia eduxi te de terra Aegypti: |
V: I brought you out of the bondage of Egypt. |
I |
|
Hagios o Theos - |
I. Hagios, ho Theos, |
Holy god! |
|
Quia eduxi te per desertum quadraginta annis, |
V: I have guided you through the desert for forty years. |
2. |
|
Hagios o Theos ... |
Hagios, ho Theos, ... |
Holy god! ... |
|
Quid ultra debui facere tibi, et non feci? |
V: What more should I have done to you and didn't I? |
3. |
|
Hagios o Theos ... |
Hagios, ho Theos, ... |
Holy god! ... |
|
II. |
II. |
|
|
Ego te eduxi de Aegypto, |
V: I brought you out of Egypt |
4. |
|
Ego ante te aperui mare: |
V: I made a way through the sea before you, |
|
|
Ego ante te praeivi in columna nubis: |
V: I moved ahead of you in a pillar of cloud, |
|
|
Ego te pavi manna per desertum: |
V: I fed |
5. |
|
Ego te potavi aqua salutis de petra: |
V: I gave you water to drink from the rock and saved |
|
|
Ego te exaltavi magna virtute: |
V: I have exalted you and endowed you with great power, |
7. |
|
Ego propter te Chananaeorum reges percussi: |
V: It was because of you that I struck the kings of Canaan, but |
6. |
|
Ego dedi tibi sceptrum shelves: |
V: I gave you a king's scepter, |
6. |
Orthodox churches
The Orthodox Churches celebrate Good Friday according to the Byzantine Rite , which also contains lamentations and the Trishagion .
Based on the anti- Judaistic god - murder theory, some of these lamentations refer to the Jews as "swarm of god-murderers", "wicked", "godless and criminal", "tainted with murder", "jealous, murderous and vengeful people", "perishable bonds of haters of God "," Synagogue of wicked murderers of God "," arrogant Israel "and" (teeth) gnashing, most vicious Hebrew family ". The benefits of Christ to his people are contrasted with this. A confession of guilt by the Christian community, which declares that it is jointly responsible for Jesus' suffering and death, is supplemented by the priest if necessary, but is not part of the given liturgy.
Since 1977 there have been five official consultations by representatives of the Orthodox Church and Judaism , at which the latter asked for a revision of the anti-Jewish chants in the Holy Week liturgy. Since May 1995, Bartholomäus I - as Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, spiritual head of the Orthodox Church without a primacy of jurisdiction - has been in favor of removing the anti-Jewish passages from the Holy Week liturgy. Individual synods could change the liturgy, but do without it out of respect for tradition until a large council of all Orthodox has decided on it. Many Orthodox traditionalists in Eastern Europe reject such a liturgical reform on principle, while Western Orthodox are more open to it due to stronger contacts with Jews. They leave out the anti-Jewish insults or reinterpret them: The French catechism Dieu vivant accuses Christian crimes against Jews and emphasizes God's unconditional Israeli covenant. Christians, too, are always at risk of betraying their neighbors, like Judas , of betraying and murdering Christ.
Settings
In addition to the one-part Gregorian improperia and that of Federico Mompou (for baritone solo, 1964), there are polyphonic settings by Tomás Luis de Victoria , Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina , Orlando di Lasso , Giovanni Battista Casali , Pompeo Cannicciari , Giovanni Giorgi , Giovanni Bernardo Zucchinetti , Oreste Ravanello , Karel Goeyvaerts , Franz Xaver Witt , Lajos Bárdos , John Sanders , Thomas Gabriel ( Popule meus ) and Krzysztof Penderecki (as Passacaglia in his St. Luke Passion ). There is also an orchestral version by Petr Eben .
literature
Catholic liturgy
- Missale Romanum ex decreto Sacrosancti Oecomenici Concilii Vaticani II instauratum auctoritate Pauli PP. VI promulgatum; Editio typica altera; Rome 1975; Pp. 259-216.
- The celebration of Holy Mass. Missal for the dioceses of the German-speaking area. Authentic edition for liturgical use ; published on behalf of the Bishops' Conferences of Germany, Austria and Switzerland and the Bishops of Luxembourg, Bozen-Brixen and Liège. Small edition, Einsiedeln u. a., 1975; Pp. [56] - [58].
- Graduale Romanum ; Tournai: Desclée, 1974; Pp. 176-181
- Praise to god. Catholic prayer and hymn book ; Stuttgart: Catholic Bible Institute, 1975; Pp. 268-269
Evangelical liturgy
- Cantionale for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria ; 5th edition of the musical appendix to the agenda, Volume 1; Ansbach 1941; Pp. 161-172.
- Small cantional for use in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, Volume 1 ; Munich 1968; Pp. 40-43.
- Passion and Easter. Agende for Evangelical Lutheran churches and parishes, Volume II, Part 1 ; Hanover 2011; Pp. 77-80.240-247
Web links
- Text of the improperies
- Text version by Reinhard Brandhorst based on: H. Hickmann u. a .: Handbook of the Christian Year ; Nashville, 1986; P. 187 f.
Single receipts
- ^ Office of the VELKD (ed.): Divine service celebrations from Palm Sunday to Easter. Draft of the agenda for Evangelical Lutheran churches and communities , Volume 2, Part 1; worship series 21; Hanover: Lutherisches Verlagshaus, 2008; ISBN 978-37859-0977-5 ; P. 47
- ^ Basilius J. Groen: Anti-Judaism in the Christian liturgy and attempts to overcome it