The Lamentation
Entry from Grove Music Online
Lamentations.
The Old Testament verses of mourning of the prophet Jeremiah (Threni, Lamentationes), portions of which were sung in the Roman Catholic liturgy until around 1970 as lessons for the first Nocturn of Matins on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Along with the great responsories, the Lamentations are musically the most important texts of TENEBRAE and were set polyphonically by major composers as early as the 15th century.
1. Structure of chant.
Until the 16th century the number and selection of Lamentations verses used as lessons for the triduum sacrum varied considerably, but the Council of Trent succeeded in establishing an ordered system. From then the division was essentially as shown in Table 1 [not available online]. The first lesson begins with the words ‘Incipit lamentatio Jeremiae prophetae’ (or ‘De lamentatione’), the third lesson on Holy Saturday with ‘Incipit oratio Jeremiae prophetae’. A distinguishing feature is the appearance of Hebrew letters (Aleph, Beth, Ghimel) at the beginning of each verse, indicating that in the original Hebrew the five chapters of laments were largely an alphabetical acrostic. Each lesson ends with the line ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, convertere ad Dominum Deum tuum’, which is not from Jeremiah but is freely adapted from Hosea xiv.1.
TABLE 1
Lesson I
Lesson II
Lesson III
Maundy Thursday
i. 1–5
i. 6–9
i. 10–14
Good Friday
ii. 8–11
ii. 12–15
iii. 1–9
Holy Saturday
iii. 22–30
iv. 1–6
v. 1–11
Like the Passion, the Lamentations received particular emphasis in the readings of the Holy Week liturgy and were distinguished by special lesson chants. Those that survive from the Middle Ages are in part simple recitation formulae and in part more individual settings that attempt to express the content of the text (ex.1). After the Council of Trent one of the simpler existing formulae, related structurally to the 6th psalm tone, was officially prescribed in the Roman liturgy (ex.2). For the Oratio Jeremiae (third lesson on Holy Saturday) a melodically rich, ornamented tonus lamentationum of Spanish provenance could be used. A monophonic setting of the complete Sarum text by the 15th-century English composer John Tuder (GB-Cmc Pepys 1236) is an extended paraphrase of the ‘Roman’ tone in a form then current in England.
Ex.1 from Wagner, p.240
Ex.2 LU, 631
2. Polyphonic Lamentations to 1600.
The history of polyphonic Lamentations can be traced only as far back as the middle of the 15th century. Like contemporary polyphony for the Passion, the earliest settings intended to serve liturgically as lessons for the triduum sacrum were organum-like with strictly syllabic declamation and frequent parallel movement. Such settings may be distinguished, however, from a smaller group of motet-like works based on single verses. The best-known example is Du Fay’s three-voice lament on the fall of Constantinople (1453), which has a French text (‘O tres piteulx’) in the upper voice and the Roman tonus lamentationum with the text ‘Omnes amici ejus spreverunt eam’ (Lamentations i.2) in the tenor. Other ‘Lamentation motets’ of the late 15th century are Johannes Cornago’s Patres nostri peccaverunt and Compère’s O vos omnes.
A large, two-volume collection of polyphonic Lamentations printed by Petrucci in 1506 illustrates the extent to which composers of the Josquin generation, including Alexander Agricola, Marbrianus de Orto, Johannes de Quadris, Gaspar van Weerbeke, Erasmus Lapicida, Tinctoris, Tromboncino and Bernhard Ycart, were interested in works of this genre. A characteristic of the works of this collection, and of Lamentations generally in the first half of the 16th century, is that individual composers treated a varied selection of Lamentations chapters. They also differ greatly in the number of verses they set, as well as in the way they grouped them in the course of the lesson. In melodic substance the majority of the Lamentations in Petrucci’s collection bear the stamp of the Roman tonus lamentationum, which is clearly recognizable as a cantus firmus in places and more freely worked in others. The setting of Tromboncino is peculiar in that the opening is set to an original theme, the individual motifs of which are repeated in the same or a different order as the text progresses. The Lamentations of Quadris are also notable for their strophic-like form, similar in structure to settings of the Magnificat from around 1500.
The flowering of polyphonic Lamentations that began with the Petrucci edition lasted for the whole of the 16th century. Netherlandish, French, Italian and Spanish composers were first and foremost in this field, English and German being less in evidence. For the first half of the century the main sources are Liber decimus: Passiones (Paris, 1534; RISM 1535²); Selectae harmoniae (Wittenberg, 1538¹); Lamentationes Hieremiae Prophetae (Nuremberg, 1549¹); and Piissimae ac sacratissimae lamentationes (Paris, 15577). These publications include Lamentations by Arcadelt, Crecquillon, Costanzo Festa, Antoine de Févin, Johannes Gardano, Isaac, La Rue, Stephan Mahu and Claudin de Sermisy. Carpentras must rank as the most prolific composer of the genre at this time; his Lamentations, which had appeared in an individual edition in Avignon in 1532, enjoyed special favour with the popes and were regularly sung in S Pietro until 1587.
Lamentations in the first half of the 16th century adhered more rigidly to the Roman tonus lamentationum than did those of earlier composers, which means that most were in the same mode (F Ionian). Stylistically they are similar to the contemporary motet; four-part writing is clearly the rule and the spectrum of contrapuntal possibilities is quite varied. The Lamentations of Carpentras and Crecquillon, in particular, are often highly imitative and rhythmically complex, whereas La Rue preferred a more homorhythmic texture reminiscent of the French chanson. Expressive devices are not more highly developed or more frequently used than in other genres despite the strongly expressive nature of the text.
In the second half of the 16th century the most significant settings are those of Morales (1564), Victoria (1581), Lassus (1585), Asola (1585), Handl (in Opus musicum, iii, 1587) and Palestrina (five books from 1564 on, only the first of which was printed in Rome in 1588). Palestrina’s Lamentations, along with works of other composers, replaced those of Carpentras in the papal chapel from 1587. Stylistically they are close to his Improperia and Stabat mater and belong among his most mature works. In contrast to settings from the first half of the century, they reveal a stronger tendency to homorhythmic texture in order to obtain a clear declamation of the text (this is also true of the Lamentations of Lassus and Handl, but not of Morales and Victoria). In Palestrina’s compositions only the Hebrew letters are melodically and rhythmically ornate, rather like illuminated initials. Adherence to the Roman tonus lamentationum was no longer as prevalent nor as strict; this is generally true of other settings of his time. The only complete setting of the Lamentations from 16th-century England, which appears anonymously in GB-Lbl Roy. App.12–16, does occasionally paraphrase the chant tone in the upper voice and the partial setting by Osbert Parsley makes use of it; but the Lamentations of Byrd, Tallis and Robert White dispense with it altogether. Of these English settings, only that of Tallis sets a text corresponding to the requirements of the Sarum Breviary (in this case the first and second lessons of Maundy Thursday); those of White (two sets, in five and six parts respectively, with almost identical texts) correspond to parts of the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday lessons; those of Byrd and Parsley are extracts from the Roman arrangements; while the anonymous setting includes all nine of the Roman lessons (with the omission of some verses: see Warren, 1970). 16th-century Spanish composers made striking use of a Spanish tonus lamentationum: a setting by Morales, in which this lesson tone appears as a cantus firmus, was transcribed into tablature for lute and solo voice by Miguel de Fuenllana in 1554, anticipating to some extent the early monodic Lamentations of the next century.
3. Settings after 1600.
The stylistic innovations of the early 17th century influenced the Lamentations slowly. Among the numerous settings in the stile antico are those of Giovanni Croce (1603 and 1610), Karl Luython (1604), Viadana (1609) and Gregorio Allegri (1641). The Lamentations of Allegri partly superseded those of Palestrina in the papal chapel. But monodic Lamentations with basso continuo began to be written in Italy as early as the end of the 16th century. According to a report by G.B. Doni, Vincenzo Galilei of the Florentine Camerata had been moved to attempt composition by the Lamentations and by the songs of sorrow in Dante’s Divina commedia, and performed his own monodic Lamentations ‘molto soavemente … sopra un concerto di viole’ (Trattato della musica scenica, chap.9). Any settings that Galilei may have written down, however, have not survived. The Lamentations by Cavalieri may have been written in collaboration with Galilei, but must also be seen in connection with the religious aspirations of the Congregazione dell’Oratorio. Probably performed in 1599 in the Oratorio della Vallicella in Rome, Cavalieri’s setting is transitional in its alternation of parts for soloist and chorus; in this it was as characteristic of the half-century to 1650 as were the Lamentations of Annibale Gregori for solo voice and basso continuo printed in Siena in 1620. Not until the middle of the century do the sources for monodic Lamentations become more common, principally in Italy. Among those printed are works by A.B. Della Ciaia (1650), Pietro Cesi (1653), C.D. Cossoni (1668), Cazzati (1668), Francesco Cavanni (1689) and G.P. Colonna (1689); manuscripts surviving from this period include Lamentationsby Carissimi, Frescobaldi, Marazzoli, G.F. Marcorelli, Carlo Rainaldi, Stradella, Gaetano Veneziano and others. The only Lamentations from Germany in this period, those of Rosenmüller, were wholly italianate in style.
The texts of these composers conform to the basic criteria of a liturgical Lesson (Hebrew letters, ‘Jerusalem’ line, and occasionally even traces of the Roman tonus lamentationum). Musically, however, they depart dramatically from the traditional reserve of the stile antico. The Lamentations text, with its emotionally charged contest, gave the composers of the 17th century a number of welcome opportunities for text expression (chromaticism, free use of dissonance etc.), and the pathos thus achieved, reinforced by a tendency to arioso form, brought the monodic Lamentations of this period into the immediate domain of the lamento in opera, oratorio and cantata. Interest in the setting of Lamentation texts waned noticeably in 18th-century Italy, but remained relatively high in Naples. Many representatives of the so-called Neapolitan school composed such works: Alessandro Scarlatti, Durante, Francesco Feo, Porpora, Leonardo Leo, David Perez, Jommelli, Alessandro Speranza and, in the 19th century, N.A. Zingarelli.
Apart from Italy, only France played an important part in the history of the Lamentations in the 17th and 18th centuries. There, more than 100 years after the collected edition of Lamentations of Le Roy & Ballard (1557), a new development began that culminated in the extensive leçons de ténèbres of Michel Lambert (1689) and Charpentier (c1670–95). The most important characteristics of these settings are a highly melismatic vocal line and the frequent use of the Roman tonus lamentationum as a melodic foundation. In fact, the leçons de ténèbres are unique, contrasting both with the French motet and with contemporary Italian Lamentations. The leçons not only served a liturgical function but were also performed in the courtly presentations of Louis XIV. The Lamentations for chorus by Guillaume Nivers (1689) were a specifically French phenomenon inspired by the exceptionally successful masses ‘en plain chant’ of Henry Du Mont. In the 18th century the published settings of François Couperin (?1714), Brossard (1721) and Lalande (1730) must be counted among the most noteworthy French church music of their time; their influence was felt even outside France, particularly in the Lamentations of J.-H. Fiocco, who was active in Brussels. French appreciation of the Lamentations at this time is reflected in literature, as in Diderot’s reference to the Lamentations of Jommelli (Le neveu de Rameau).
For the most part, the continuing development of the Lamentations drew to a close at the end of the 18th century; not until the middle of the 20th century did the genre experience a short revival. Krenek’s Lamentatio (first performed in 1958) is based on the complete text of the nine lessons and the music combines modern serial techniques with formal and stylistic devices of the late Middle Ages to produce an original choral style of great forcefulness. In contrast, Stravinsky’s Threni of 1958 for soloists, chorus and orchestra is a pure 12-note work, in which the composer expressly avoided both liturgical and historical connotations.
Special cases in the history of the Lamentations are the German solo songs of the Neumarkt Cantional (c1480), non-biblical songs of mourning using the Hebrew letters and Jerusalem line. Finally, Haydn’s Symphony no.26 (‘Lamentatione’) may be mentioned in this context as a unique work, one in which the Gregorian tone is used as a motif as well as a cantus firmus.
Bibliography
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Günther Massenkeil