Tenebrae responsories

Polyphonic settings to replace plainchant have been published under a various titles, including Responsoria pro hebdomada sancta (Responsories for Holy Week).

[1][2] Composers who produced polyphonic settings include Carlo Gesualdo (Responsoria et alia ad Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae spectantia, 1611, Jean L'Héritier, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, 19 settings (H.111 -119, H.126 - 134 and H.144), Joseph Haydn (Hob XXIIb), Jan Dismas Zelenka (ZWV 55), Max Reger, Francis Poulenc, and Pierre Boulez[citation needed].

Since the polyphonic Lamentations were an important musical genre in their own right, many collections (such as Victoria's Officium Hebdomadae sanctae 1585) include only the 18 Responsories of the second and third nocturns.

They can also be named by the day on which they were actually sung, as Charpentier's Les neuf répons du mercredi saint ("The nine responsories of Holy Wednesday").

The readings of the second nocturn of Maundy Thursday are from Saint Augustine's commentary on Psalm 54/55 Troisième répons après la troisième leçon du premier nocturne, H.113 (1680), for 1 voice and continuo Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Premier répons après la première leçon du second nocturne du Mercredi Saint, H.127 (1690), for 1 voice , 2 flutes and continuo Second of Poulenc's Sept répons des ténèbres.

Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Quatrième répons après la première leçon du second nocturne, H.114 (1680), for 2 voices and continuo Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Troisième répons après la troisième leçon du second nocturne du Mercredi Saint, H.132 (1690), for 1 voice, 2 violins and continuo The readings of the third nocturn of Maundy Thursday are 1 Corinthians 11:17−22, 11:23−26, 11:27−34 Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Cinquième répons après la seconde leçon du second nocturne, H.115 (1680), for 1 voice and continuo Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Sixième répons après la troisième leçon du second nocturne, H.116 (1680), for 3 voices and continuo First of Poulenc's Sept répons des ténèbres.

Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Répons après la première leçon de ténèbres du Jeudi Saint, H.144 (mid1690), for 1 voice, 2 flutes and continuo Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Second répons après la seconde leçon du premier nocturne du Jeudi Saint, H.128, for soloists, chorus, flutes, strings and continuo (1690) Second of Poulenc's Quatre motets pour un temps de pénitence.

The readings of the second nocturn of Good Friday are from Saint Augustine's commentary on Psalm 63/64 Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Premier répons après la première leçon du second nocturne du Jeudi Saint, H.133 (1690), for 1 voice, 2 flutes,, 2 violins and continuo This responsory is included on p. 269 of the Lutheran Neu Leipziger Gesangbuch (1682).

Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Second répons après la seconde leçon du premier nocturne de Vendredi Saint, H.130 (1690), for 2 voices, 2 flutes and continuo This responsory has some parallels with the Book of Joel, e.g. "plange quasi virgo" ("Lament like a girl", 1:8), "accingite vos et plangite sacerdotes ululate ministri altaris" ("Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests; Wail, you ministers of the altar", 1:13) and "magnus enim dies Domini et terribilis valde" ("for the day of Yahweh is great and very awesome", 2:11).

Ululate pastores, in cinere et cilicio, Quia veniet Dies Domini Magna Et amara valde.