Responsory

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A responsory is a type of chant in Christian liturgies that involves one section singing a respond, answered by another section singing a verse, then the respond is sung again by the first section, followed by a different verse from the second, et al. Famous responsories include the Matin Responsory by Palestrina, translated into English from a medieval chant that includes the following text:

(soloist) I look from afar: and lo, I see the power of God coming, and a cloud covering the whole earth. Go ye out to meet him and say:

(refrain) Tell us, art thou he that should come to reign over thy people Israel?

(soloist) High and low, rich and poor, One with another, go ye out to meet him and say: Hear, O thou shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a sheep.

(refrain) Tell us, art thou he that should come? (unison) Stir up thy strength, O Lord, and come to reign over thy people Israel.

(soloist) Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.

The chants called responsories are of two types: the great responsories of the night office, and the little responsories (responsoriolae) used at other hours. The great responsories are sung after the readings and can serve as sung meditations on the text that has just been read.

A great responsory ordinarily has two components: a respond, or refrain, and a verse. The respond in turn is ordinarily divided into two parts. In modern editions the division-point is indicated by an asterisk. Here, for example, is the responsory Quem vidistis from the Night Office of Christmas:

(Respond) Quem vidistis pastores dicite, annuntiate nobis in terris quis apparuit ? * Natum vidimus et choros angelorum collaudantes Dominum. (Verse) Dicite quidnam vidistis ? et annuntiate Christi nativitatem.

Methods of performance vary, but in the case of this example they usually involve singing the full response, followed by the verse, followed by the second half (after the asterisk) of the respond. This use of only part of the respond after the verse is known as repetition a latere, "from the side", because only part of the response is repeated.

Most great responsories contain only one respond and one verse, so that the whole chant can be schematically represented as RVR', the R' indicating that only the second part of the response is sung. Sometimes a half-doxology is added, "Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto" after the half-respond, and the half-respond is repeated again after it. Schematically such a chant would be represented as RVR'DR', where D indicates the half-doxology. The responsory Aspiciens a longe, sung after the first reading on the first Sunday of Advent, is unusual (though not unique) in having more than one verse. Because of this, the respond is broken up onto five pieces. The English form of this responsory (which differs from the Roman) was traditionally sung as follows:

(Respond) Aspiciens a longe ecce video Dei potentiam venientem et nebulam totam terram gegentem.* Ite obviam ei et dicite, * nuntia nobis si tu es ipse * qui regnaturus es * in populo Israel.
(First verse) Quique terrigenae et filii hominum, simul in unum dives et pauper.
Then the chorus sings from "Ite obviam ei" all the way to "in populo Israel".
(Second verse) Qui regis Israel intende: qui deducis velut ovem Ioseph
The chorus then sings from "Nuntia nobis" all the way to "in populo Israel".
(Third verse) Excita Domine potentiam tuam et veni ut salvos facias nos.
The chous then sings "Qui regnaturus es in populo Israel".
(Doxology) Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto
The chorus then sings "In populo Israel"
The entire respond is then repeated from "Aspiciens" to "in populo Israel".