Holy Thursday: Pange Lingua/Tantum Ergo

The second privileged chant on Holy Thursday comes at the end of Mass at the Eucharistic Procession to the place of reposition.  The MR3, (in continuity with the 1962 missal) calls for the singing of the Pange Lingua up to and until the arrival of the ministers at the place of reposition, at which point all sing the final two verses known on their own as the Tantum Ergo.  The lyrics are attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas, who wrote Office and Mass texts for the feast of Corpus Christi in about 1260.  Pope Urban IV would order the celebration of Corpus Christi as a feast across the universal Church in 1264, and we still use these texts, substantially unchanged, to this day.

   Pange Lingua weaves together several important doctrines of the faith: the Incarnation, the Immaculate Conception, the hypostatic union, the sacramental economies of Eucharist and priesthood, transubstantiation.  Having just celebrated the Holy Thursday Eucharist, all of these big words and ideas begin to articulate who it was that died and rose for our salvation, who it was we just encountered in the Eucharist, and who it is that is present in the tabernacle, continuing to invite the faithful to a share in his cross.  But remember!  We are not encountering a collection of doctrines that we read about in a book... a god of mere philosophical ideals... but we encounter the Living God in and through the Eucharistic Presence of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

 

Here are the texts and a translation 'borrowed' from our friends at Wikipedia...

 

Latin text	An English translation	A more literal rendering
Pange, lingua, gloriosi Corporis mysterium, Sanguinisque pretiosi, quem in mundi pretium fructus ventris generosi Rex effudit Gentium. Nobis datus, nobis natus ex intacta Virgine, et in mundo conversatus, sparso verbi semine, sui moras incolatus miro clausit ordine. In supremae nocte coenae recumbens cum fratribus observata lege plene cibis in legalibus, cibum turbae duodenae se dat suis manibus. Verbum caro, panem verum verbo carnem efficit: fitque sanguis Christi merum, et si sensus deficit, ad firmandum cor sincerum sola fides sufficit. Tantum ergo Sacramentum veneremur cernui: et antiquum documentum novo cedat ritui: praestet fides supplementum sensuum defectui. Genitori, Genitoque laus et jubilatio, salus, honor, virtus quoque sit et benedictio: Procedenti ab utroque compar sit laudatio. Amen. Alleluja.	Sing, my tongue, the Saviour's glory, of His Flesh, the mystery sing; of the Blood, all price exceeding, shed by our Immortal King, destined, for the world's redemption, from a noble Womb to spring. Of a pure and spotless Virgin born for us on earth below, He, as Man, with man conversing, stayed, the seeds of truth to sow; then He closed in solemn order wond'rously His Life of woe. On the night of that Last Supper, seated with His chosen band, He, the Paschal Victim eating, first fulfils the Law's command; then as Food to His Apostles gives Himself with His own Hand. Word-made-Flesh, the bread of nature by His Word to Flesh He turns; wine into His Blood He changes; what though sense no change discerns? Only be the heart in earnest, faith her lesson quickly learns. Down in adoration falling, This great Sacrament we hail, O'er ancient forms of worship Newer rites of grace prevail; Faith will tell us Christ is present, When our human senses fail. To the Everlasting Father, And the Son who made us free And the Spirit, God proceeding From them Each eternally, Be salvation, honour, blessing, Might and endless majesty. Amen. Alleluia.	Tell, tongue, the mystery of the glorious Body and of the precious Blood, which, for the price of the world, the fruit of a noble Womb, the King of the Nations flowed forth. Given to us, born for us, from the untouched Virgin, and dwelt in the world after the seed of the Word had been scattered. His inhabiting ended the delays with wonderful order. On the night of the Last Supper, reclining with His brethren, once the Law had been fully observed with the prescribed foods, as food to the crowd of Twelve He gives Himself with His hands. The Word as Flesh makes true bread into flesh by a word and the wine becomes the Blood of Christ. And if sense is deficient to strengthen a sincere heart Faith alone suffices. Therefore, the great Sacrament we reverence, prostrate: and the old Covenant cedes to a new rite. Faith stands forth as substitute for defect of the senses. To Begetter and Begotten be praise and jubilation, health, honour, strength also and blessing. To the One who proceeds from Both be praise as well. Amen, Alleluia.

 

   How fitting that we take these technical, precise, scientific, and articulate words and set them to poetry and music! Do you get the joke? St. Thomas did. What we cannot contain in words is expressed in music, what we cannot express in music is contained in words. There is a duality here which is paradoxical and disturbing in its natural tension, somewhat foreshadowing the tension found in the Incarnation itself: God made man! The duality of this music would not make sense in other contexts. Very few scientists sing songs about the mysteries of DNA, particle physics, and evolution... mysteries that can be circumscribed by words, equations, and descriptions of precise observations. On the other hand, musicians tend to be inspired by transcendent ideals, writing very few practical lyrics about things like today's stock market prices. St. Thomas was able to combine "left brain" and "right brain", the precise and the scientific with the artistic and emotional, the concrete and the sublime.

   Growing up in the English speaking world, the hymn books tended to print the English lyrics to the tune, "St. Thomas"... a nice 4/4 march in 8.7.8.7.8.7 meter, composed John Francis Wade in the 18th century.  Wade was among the English Catholic exiles of this period who lived in France.  You might recognize him more readily as the one who is attributed with the metrical arrangement of O Come, All Ye Faithful (although I believe it existed as a chant before him).

   But in the 1990's as I was coming of age as a musician, I first encountered the Gregorian (mode 3) tune for Pange Lingua, and have been hooked ever since.  The chant has made a comeback, none other than the newsprint hymnal I was using tonight had this version printed, instead of the metrical "St. Thomas" version that used to be sung in years gone by.  Maurice Durufle, who I talked about earlier this evening, used the plainsong Tantum ergo as the basis of another one of his luscious polyphonic Quatre Motets.  You can find this out there on the internet or you will get it if you order the CD I pointed to earlier in the evening.

   I will point you to a YouTube featuring the unadorned glory of the simple chant (the words are slightly different in places as this is the Corpus Christi version... if I find a version that fits better to the words above, I'll change it and include it below):