The "Responsory"

[quaeritor]

Can anyone tell me more about the structure, role, and way of singing a Responsory? We seem to encounter only a few these days, but there was on on Ash Wednesday, and there is another coming up on Palm Sunday. (I also enjoy the Palestrina setting of the Matins Responsory every year when moonlighting at the Advent Carol service in my wife's parish (Anglican)).

What has caught my interest is that one or more fragments of the "Response" are repeated after one or more "Verses", rather than the whole thing, which seems a very neat solution to the problem referred to elsewhere of expecting the Assembly to pick up the words and music of the rather long "Antiphons" given for the various processions especially at Communion which is the one that I would like to turn my attention to again this year.

Why the "" "" in the previous paragraph? Well, taking Palm Sunday's text as a model. it starts with the ornate "R" in red, which I have assumed stands for "Response", but there is a red asterisk before the phrase "Waving their branches . . " which is the bit that is repeated (by all?) and there is a red "V" before"When the people heard . . " which might well stand for Verse although (as with the "R") nothing says that it does - just centuries of experience I suppose. This gives rise to a few questions of minor detail:

What is the difference between an "Antiphon" and a "Response"?

Why is the "Response" called the "Response" if the bit that is "responded" is the bit after the asterisk?

Is the "Verse" a verse from a psalm, a verse in the sense of a "sentence" or "line" (neither word quite accurate) in any passage of scripture or just a bit of freely composed text that is not the "Response"?

Is the word "responsorial" in "Responsorial Psalm" a direct reference to the Responsory ("Psalm in the form of a Responsory), a reference back to other specific terminology used some time in the past, or just another made-up translation of a long Latin word that looks as if by chopping off the inflection at the end it should produce an equivalent English word? (Spell Check doesn't like it!)

Any background information would be very welcome.

Q

[quaeritor]

I thought I'd just move this up the leader board a little - can anyone help?
(I'd say "pretty please" if doing so didn't make me slightly nauseous!)

Q

[keitha]

I'm not sure that I can help much (if at all!). My experience of 'responsories' is mainly confined to the 'short responsories' in the rite of evening prayer. I assume that, in the case of Palm Sunday, you are considering the responsory for the entry of the procession into the church (item 10 in the new Roman Missal). As I see it, the red letter 'R' indicates (as usual) the people's part, so that "As the Lord entered...Hosanna in the Highest" is sung first by all (although I would have it sung by cantors and repeated by all). The celebrant or cantor(s) then chant "When the people...their branches". After that, I think that there is a printing error in the Missal - in that "Waving their branches" where it appear at the end should be followed by 3 dots, and not a full stop. If so, then that section is repeated by all, which would make sense, conform with the Ash Wednesday responsory......and match every other responsory that I have ever seen!

Of course, I could be wrong....

[John Ainslie]

Can anyone tell me more about the structure, role, and way of singing a Responsory? We seem to encounter only a few these days, but there was on on Ash Wednesday, and there is another coming up on Palm Sunday. (I also enjoy the Palestrina setting of the Matins Responsory every year when moonlighting at the Advent Carol service in my wife's parish (Anglican)).

What has caught my interest is that one or more fragments of the "Response" are repeated after one or more "Verses", rather than the whole thing, which seems a very neat solution to the problem referred to elsewhere of expecting the Assembly to pick up the words and music of the rather long "Antiphons" given for the various processions especially at Communion which is the one that I would like to turn my attention to again this year.

Why the "" "" in the previous paragraph? Well, taking Palm Sunday's text as a model. it starts with the ornate "R" in red, which I have assumed stands for "Response", but there is a red asterisk before the phrase "Waving their branches . . " which is the bit that is repeated (by all?) and there is a red "V" before"When the people heard . . " which might well stand for Verse although (as with the "R") nothing says that it does - just centuries of experience I suppose.

The Responsory is an ancient part of the Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office). 'Responsory' because it was a sung meditation responding to the reading that preceded it - the same derivation, therefore, as 'Responsorial Psalm'.

The Responsory contains within it a repeatable section, starting from the asterisk, such that the normal form of a Responsory is:
R/ Text * refrain
V/ Verse * refrain
...and more verses, each ending with * refrain, ad lib.

This is a bit confusing, because it appears that the R/ response comes before the V/ verse. But in this case the R/ refers to the whole responsory, and the verse to a text within it. What became the Offertory antiphon started life as a responsory, and this has been restored in the Processional, so have a look there for some more examples.

The Short Responsory, which occurs elsewhere in the Liturgy of the Hours, is derived from the same format, but performed differently. Thus, for Lenten Sunday Evening Prayer:
Cantor(s): Hear us, Lord, and have mercy, * for we have sinned against you.
Tutti: Hear us, Lord, and have mercy, * for we have sinned against you.
Cantors(s): V/ Oh listen, Christ, to the prayers of those who cry to you,
Tutti: * for we have sinned against you.
Cantor(s): Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Tutti: Hear us, Lord, and have mercy, * for we have sinned against you.

Note how only the second half of the text is repeated after the verse. Unfortunately, the editors of the Divine Office in use in this country decided to do away with this nicety, leaving the V/ verse without its proper complement.

What is the difference between an "Antiphon" and a "Response"?

An antiphon is a standalone piece which was originally repeated after one or more verses of a psalm, then only at the end of a psalm, and then in the case of the Mass antiphons it lost all but the first verse of the psalm (Introit), or lost it altogether (Communion). A response reponds to something: either a preceding verse or a preceding reading.

Is the "Verse" a verse from a psalm, a verse in the sense of a "sentence" or "line" (neither word quite accurate) in any passage of scripture or just a bit of freely composed text that is not the "Response"?

For short responsories and verse/responses, freely composed; for more elaborate responsories, usually from the psalms.

Hope this is helpful.

[Southern Comfort]

The Short Responsory, which occurs elsewhere in the Liturgy of the Hours, is derived from the same format, but performed differently. Thus, for Lenten Sunday Evening Prayer:
Cantor(s): Hear us, Lord, and have mercy, * for we have sinned against you.
Tutti: Hear us, Lord, and have mercy, * for we have sinned against you.
Cantors(s): V/ Oh listen, Christ, to the prayers of those who cry to you,
Tutti: * for we have sinned against you.
Cantor(s): Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Tutti: Hear us, Lord, and have mercy, * for we have sinned against you.

Note how only the second half of the text is repeated after the verse. Unfortunately, the editors of the Divine Office in use in this country decided to do away with this nicety, leaving the V/ verse without its proper complement.

If anyone is interested in knowing who was responsible for this, the answer is an Irishman, the late Dom Placid Murray of Glenstal Abbey. His view prevailed over all protests (and there were many, not least the nuns of Stanbrook Abbey), so he must go down in history as something of an iconoclast, alas.