Reed Miller

9/22/14
Dr. Kennedy

Viewed in the intended context, far from its contemporary repackaging

as sonorous easy listening music, Gregorian chants significance to the
spiritual practices of medieval Europeans is hard to underestimate. The
assigned hymn Vexilla regis prodeunt illustrates how music is employed for
the elevation and glorification of the liturgys most intimate moments. It is a
bond foreshadowing the importance of music in the consciousness and
identity of western European culture. However, thanks to the obfuscating
nature of time,
realizing chant is a practical challenge. I will discuss my journey towards
understanding the context of Vexilla, differences in several of its surviving
manuscripts, and my experience creating a transcription of the chant.
Vexilla is sung during Vespers, an evening hour of the Divine Office.
The liturgical chant compendium Liber Usualis confirms its placement. De
Passione is an indication of the chants position in the liturgical period of
Passiontide. The Passiontide begins on the Fifth Sunday of Lent and marks a
solemn period of two weeks before the Passion of the Christ. Hebrews
chapter 9 verses 11-12 precede the chant, and here the crucial function of
the Vexilla comes to light. Hebrews 9, 11-12 begins a section titled The Blood
of Christ, this Scripture is a description of the importance of the self-

sacrificial act Christ undertakes on the cross. From verse 12, He did not
enter [heaven] by means of the blood of goats but he entered once for all
by his own blood. Vexillas lyric is directly connected to this Scriptures
message of mystical self-sacrifice to attain transcendence, and in the second
line glorifies the original message the mystery of the cross does gleam.
Vexilla is illustrative of the importance of chant in the Church as a spiritual
reinforcement.
In the Liber a provided facsimile of the Vexilla differs slightly from my
reference manuscript. The melody is the same, but written with a C-clef on
the top line of the staff, the accidental of the mode provided, and a different
placement of double bars. Visually the Liber text is neater and easier to read;
textually the different versions diverge after the second bar-line. Another
manuscript of Vexilla from the 16th century differs further. Compared to both
my manuscript and the Liber facsimile it is ornate and colorful. Written neatly
into half a page, this version only includes music for the first strophe. The
clef is not only different from both other version but changes on the third
system. Beginnings and endings are marked with a Latin inscription, and
each of the six verses begins with a capital letter. The first two stanzas of
text are consistent with the older manuscript.
The provided manuscript from which I transcribed Vexilla into modern
notation is clear in comparison to the 16th century version. The manuscript
uses a D-clef consistently and has a range of a minor 9th. Written in the
Hypodorian mode, with the Final on D and reciting tone on F, the text setting

is neumatic. Vexilla is used on the fifth Sunday of Lent, the start of the
Passiontide, during Vespers of the Divine Office. I chose to simplify the layout
of the manuscript, placing each line on a separate staff, and used bass clef
to accommodate the range.