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| Musical Musings: Prayers and Liturgical Texts | Page 2 |
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Alleluia (Part II)Alleluia in Greek LiturgiesFrom the Temple, through the Coenaculum's alleluiatic hymn of thanksgiving, the words passed into the service of the Christian Church, whose liturgical language, like that of the Septuagint and the New Testament, was at first, naturally, Greek. Of course its essential character remained unchanged, but, as an emotional utterance of devotion, it was profoundly affected by Christian memories, and by the spirit of the Christian Faith. To its original general significance was thus added a new personal sense as Paschal refrain and, with that, among holy words, a mystic meaning all its own. Even as a form of divine acclaim its force was intensified, the feeling it evoked deepened, the ideas it suggested widened and elevated, and, above all, purified under the spiritualizing influence of Christian thought. As that thought's supreme expression of thanksgiving, joy, and triumph, "Alleluia" assumed a wider and deeper, a higher and holier, meaning than it earlier had in the liturgy of the Hebrew people. With such supreme Christian significance it appears in the earliest portion of the earliest liturgies of which we have written remains, in the so-called "primitive liturgies of the East." These may be reduced to four, called respectively, and in the supposed order of their antiquity, those of Saint Mark, Saint James, Saint Clement, and Saint Chrysostom. The last, now more commonly known as that of Constantinople, is the normal liturgy of the Eastern Churches, used not only by the "Orthodox", or Schismatic, but by the Catholic, or "United", Greeks throughout the world. The Greek Liturgy of Saint James is still used by the schismatic Greeks at Jerusalem on his feast day, and in its Syriac recension is the prototype of that of the Maronites who are Catholics. That of Saint Mark, apparently the most ancient of all, is very often in verbal agreement with the Coptic Liturgy of Saint Cyril and other similar forms, notably that of the Catholic Copts. The liturgy called that of Saint Clement, though undoubtedly very ancient, seems to have never been actually used in any Church, so may be here passed over. Now, first glancing through the liturgy of Saint Mark, as presumably the most ancient, we find this rubric, just before the Gospel: "Attend: the Apostle; the Prologue of Alleluia."--"The Apostle" is the usual ancient Eastern title for the Epistle, which the "Prologue of Alleluia" would seem to be some prayer recited by the priest before Alleluia was sung by the choir or people. Then, for Alleluiatic anthem, comes the somewhat later insertion known as the Cherubic hymn, before the Consecration: "Let us who mystically represent the Cherubim, and sing the holy hymn to the quickening Trinity, now lay by all worldly cares, that we may receive the King of Glory invisibly attended by the Angelic orders: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!" In the next most ancient of these primitive Greek liturgies of the East, that known as the Liturgy of Saint James, we find the following rubric: PRIEST: Peace be with all. Further on, immediately after the Cherubic anthem above noticed, there is the following beautiful invocation before the Consecration, PRIEST: Let all mortal flesh keep silence and stand with fear and trembling and ponder naught of itself earthly; for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Christ our God, cometh forward to be sacrificed and to be given for food to the faithful; and He is preceded by the Choirs of His Angels with every Dominion and Power, by the many-eyed Cherubim and the six-winged Seraphim who covering their faces sing aloud the Hymn: Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!Finally, in the ancient Greek Liturgy of Constantinople, we find the word used, as acclaiming expression to a kind of chorus, apparently intended to be repeated by the congregation or assistant ministers, thus: V. The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the Name of the God of Jacob defend thee;Further on, when the choir has finished the Trisagion, we have the rubric: DEACON: Attend!The reading of the Apostle being concluded, the rubric gives: PRIEST: Peace be to thee.Then, when the catechumens have departed, after the "prayers for the faithful" before the Consecration, we have the Cherubic anthem, with its triple Alleluia for "Holy hymn to the quickening Trinity" as above in the Liturgies of Saint Mark and Saint James. These extracts will suffice to show that the word from the first has been as it still is used in the liturgies of the East and in our own day, a supreme form of Christian acclamation, or lyric cry, before, in the middle, and at the end, of the versicles and responses, and anthems and hymns. The only difference in regard to it between those of the East and West is that in the former it is still, as it seems at first to have been generally, used all through the year, even during Lent, and in Offices for the dead, as the Christian cry of victory over sin and death. Thus Saint Jerome tells us it was sung at the obsequies of his sister Fabiola. With a kind of holy pride, in his own strong way he writes: "Sonabant psalmi et aurata temporum reboans in sublime quatiebat Alleluia." (See Hammond's Ancient Liturgies.)
T.J. O'MAHONY
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