5 - The Easter Vigil Canticles

Summary

The purpose of this chapter is to contextualize the Old Hispanic Easter Vigil canticles. Examining a wide range of sources for the early medieval Easter Vigil in the West allows us to better understand the differences between traditions A and B. In our analysis of the threni and psalmi we have identified parallels in texts, melodies and liturgical assignment between the Old Hispanic traditions A and B. Such similarities suggest either that the two traditions have a common origin or that there was interchange between the two practices in Toledo after the reconquest in 1085. The Easter Vigil canticles in the two traditions demand a different explanatory approach. Traditions A and B have partially different repertories of Easter Vigil canticles, arising out of their different selections of readings. Even the three canticles common to both traditions have different melodic forms, and, in one case (Cantemus), partially different text selections. These different readings cannot be understood as deriving from a common source. Further, the melodic treatments of the three shared canticles are strikingly different in the two traditions.

In this chapter we show that each tradition has different commonalities with other Western practices. To illustrate these connections we look more widely at Easter Vigil practices across Western Europe: repertoire, text origins, performance strategies, melodic style, and broader liturgical context. Initially, it might seem that one Old Hispanic tradition is a corruption of the other, or that each tradition has preserved some ancient elements while becoming decadent in others.