Viderunt omnes

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Notre Dame de Paris : The compositions Léonin and Pérotin were performed here for the first time

The Viderunt omnes (lat., All [of the earth] have seen ) is a Gregorian Gradual from the liturgy of Christmas Measuring the Proper . The text goes back to the Vulgate translation of Psalm 98 ( Ps 98,3  EÜ ). The chorale arrangements ( Organa ) of the Notre Dame School , which are dated to the late 12th century, are among the oldest surviving polyphonic compositions in music history.

text

The Vulgate counts the Psalm as the 97th ( Ps 97.3  VUL ), the text of the Gradual only offers the second half of verse 3 for unknown reasons. The request Iubilate Deo, omnis terra (“Shout before the Lord, all countries of the Earth ”) is in turn the first half of the text passage currently marked as verse 4. These two half-verses are followed by the passage listed today as verse 2. It should be noted, however, that the division of the Bible into verses , and even their exact sequence, was not yet standardized in the Middle Ages.

Viderunt omnes fines terræ
salutare dei nostri.
Iubilate deodorant, omnis terra.
Notum fecit Dominus salutare suum;
ante conspectum gentium
revelavit iustitiam suam.

Musical arrangements

The Gregorian Gradual

The unanimous Gregorian gradual is dated to the 11th century; the composer or authors of the melody are unknown. It serves as a cantus firmus for Léonin's and Pérotin's arrangements . Both composers most likely fall back on a performance practice already practiced before them, which allows the singer a rich improvisation of the originally simple Gregorian melody. A version rich in melisms can still be found today in the Liber Usualis .

The Organa of the Notre Dame School

The Magnus liber organi contains a two-part arrangement of Léonin's Viderunt omnes and a four-part ( quadruplum ) by the younger Pérotin, who was probably a student of the former. Since it cannot be clarified to what extent medieval source material has been lost, one can only speculate with regard to the often postulated revolutionary novelty of the Notre Dame school.

In contrast to older forms of sacred vocal music, however, the quadrupla Pérotins, precisely because of the need to coordinate the four voices, demand a precision of rhythmic execution that was completely unknown at the time.

In the setting, the Notre-Dame school holds (hence the term tenor , from lat. Tenere , hold) a voice to the extremely long note values zerdehnten Cantus firmus, while one or more additional votes - Duplum , triplum more animated rhythmically far - etc. Develop melisms over it.

The beginning of Pérotin's four-part Viderunt omnes in modern notation

With Léonin, but especially with Pérotin, these melismatic (organic) passages take up the considerably longer part of the performance time, during which only a few syllables of the psalm text are heard. The remainder of the text is read unanimously in a comparatively short time by the Schola in a traditional Gregorian, much more syllabic manner.

Later edits

The development of liturgical music led in a comparatively short time to the composition of complete mass settings , whereby - for pragmatic reasons - preference was given to the ordinarium . Compositions for individual sections of the mass, especially those of lower liturgical importance such as the gradual, gradually faded into the background.

Nonetheless, the composers of later stylistic epochs liked to fall back on well-known Gregorian melodies, which they often used as the cantus firmi of their motets . The sacred Latin text could certainly sound at the same time as secular, vernacular, for example in Adam de la Halles De ma dame vient (with French upper voices).

The Catholic English Renaissance composer William Byrd published a four-part arrangement of the Viderunt omnes in the style of his time in 1607 . Orlando di Lasso set the psalm text as a five-part motet.

swell

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