Today we celebrate the Feast of St. James the Greater, also known as James, son of Zebedee.  He was one of the Twelve Apostles chosen by Christ. James was born in Bethsaida, Galilee, around the year 5 B.C. He was one of the first called by Jesus, who came to him when he was fishing in Lake Gennesaret with his brother John (Mark I:19).  According to the Gospels, James witnessed together with John and Peter some of the most intense moments of the life of Jesus, evidencing like this his closeness to him: the transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor, the miraculous catch of fish, and the prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane on the eve of his Passion.

James is often referred to as "the Elder" to differentiate him from another of the group of the Apostles, James the Lesser.  James the Apostle occupies a special place in the history of the Early Church thanks to his evangelistic drive and courageous character. He was the one who brought the Word of God to lands completely distant from his native Galilee, such as the Iberian Peninsula. Precisely because of his presence there, and sowing of the faith, James is recognized as the patron saint of Spain.  The "Son of Thunder" was the nickname that Jesus had for him, and for John his brother, in allusion to the father of both.  Although the arrival of the Apostle to the ancient Hispania responded to the desire to announce the Gospel to all peoples, this announcement became part of the constituent model of the Spanish identity.  One of the symbols that identifies this contribution is the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. It is considered the main sanctuary dedicated to the Apostle and where his remains lie. Today, as in the Middle Ages, thousands of people make the pilgrimage to Compostela every year, eager to travel the route of the patron saint of Spain: The Road to Santiago, commonly known as the Camino de Santiago. 

To honor such an exalted Apostle and the patron saint of Spain, we have chosen in Neumz the offertory chant In omnem terram. The text is taken from Psalm 18:5, which is the psalm where the wonders of creation proclaim the glory of God (Caeli enarrant gloriam...). This psalm applies to the preaching of the Divine Word in the mouth of the Apostles following the words of St. Paul himself: "So then, faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ. And so I ask: Have they not heard? Indeed, they have: Their voice has gone out all over the world, and their words to the ends of the earth" (Romans 10:17-18).

The Church sings in this offertory, from the Common of Apostles, a praise to the Apostles that she celebrates in gratitude for the preaching of the Word: praise that resounds throughout the earth, for today there is not a single corner that has not heard the voices of the Apostles. And in Spain, thanks to St. James the Greater, the voice of Christ could be heard. In the Codex Calixtinus (12th century), we can read in the poem "Alleluia in Greco": "Herru Sanctiagu / Gott Sanctiagu / E Ultreia, e suseia / Deus aia nos." Let us join the voices of so many pilgrims who have traveled the Camino de Santiago to pay homage to such an exalted Apostle and let us sing: Herru Sanctiagu... Lord Santiago, good Santiago, we go further, further up, God helps us. 

As for the melody, it is composed in mode II. It shows a transposition, final La dominant Do. The melody is almost identical to the one of the offertory Dextera Domini, with the exception of a few rhythmic and melodic variations, and another series of adjustments due to the length of the text.  However, our offertory is not in any way a late adaptation. Mode II expresses the contemplation of the Lord through the benefits that we, his creatures, receive from his immense goodness. In the case of In omnem terram, we contemplate the spreading of His word, preached and proclaimed to the ends of the earth. 

In the incipit or beginning of this piece, the melodic movement ascends steadily with a salicus to the fundamental, the La. In omnem, from the La that is underlined by a virga with episema, the melody develops between the Si and the Sol. The sound widens in the virga with episema and the tristropha in the Sol, growing more and more until returning to the La, in another neumatic cut in the virga with episema and ascending to the Si. 

We attend to the irruption of the word that will travel and spread, in omnem terram, in the depths of the whole earth. In terram, the melody descends from the Si slowly in a pes quadratus subbipunctis, Sol-La-Mi-Re, all elongated, and from the low Re, it germinates and travels through an octave.  The entire range of this offertory is highlighted with great solemnity, with broadening sounds. The melody ends by blooming completely in the high Re, and after that, with a melodic turn full of reverent fervor, it bends with a leap of a fourth, settling on the La. All is gratitude and reverence for the word received from the Lord through his Apostles. In the following incise, the melody oscillates between the dominant, the Do, and the fundamental, the La: exivit sonus eorum, their sound was diffused.

The blossoming of the word, the strength of its irruption acquires each time with more intensity what confers to exivit sonus eorum a current of radiant joy and turns this incise into a glorious proclamation. It is worth noting the firmness of the melodic line in the Do, the bivirga, and the tristropha of exivit materializing the diffusion of that word sound, sonus, embodied in the fundamental and the dominant of the mode, La-Do Do-La La. Eorum, theirs, further specifies and amplifies that ardor, that force of proclamation.  The melodic movement continues to flourish majestically between the La and the Do with a broad unisonic development in Do framed by a pes, La-Do, and a clivis, Do-La, which are the echo of sonus, La-Do Do-La.  Furthermore, it rises again from the La in a magnificent leap of a fourth, up to the heights of Re. The word sound proclaimed by the Apostles resounds with great splendor and magnificence. It gradually descends from the Re to the Sol in a cascade of clivis filled with immense reverence.

In the following phrase, a bivirga in Do reopens the incise, the union between both phrases is evident and the melodic turn in the accent of fines partially resonates the beautiful melisma of the accent of eorum, that sound reaches the limits, the borders. In orbis terrae, the melodic movement traces a sublime arc from Sol to Sol.  After it rises to the Do, and in the tristropha, to continue to maintain the unbreakable strength of the apostolic sound, the melody descends gracefully to the Mi, underlined by a neumatic cut, where it delicately rests before making a reverence in the form of porrectus, Sol-Mi-Sol. The whole world has been filled with that sound that comes from the heights, a sound word, as it is made explicit in the last incise: verba eorum, their words.

The melody clothes the word verba, the words with radiance, a glow similar to that of terram: with a majestic melodic ascent from the Re, the octave is traveled again, and the word encompasses the entire range of this offertory chant, fills this world with its strength to raise us, like the melody to the highest. After a profound reverence, Re-Do-Si-La, the melody returns to the fundamental in eorum where it receives a final impulse in the quilismatic movement before concluding this masterful offering to the Apostles of the word, verba, teachers in proclaiming and spreading the power of that Divine Word, sonus.