Tomorrow we celebrate the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time. To celebrate this Sunday, we at Neumz have chosen the entrance antiphon. The text of this Introit is taken from Psalm 85, just like last Sunday's Introit. What is more, their verses follow each other. We cannot know if this is a coincidence or if it has some liturgical meaning. Last Sunday it was: Inclina, Domine, aurem tuam ad me, et exaudi me: salvum fac servum tuum, Deus meus, sperantem in te: miserere mihi quoniam... and that is where our Introit for this 22nd Sunday begins.

This Introit is composed in mode 8, with a much less dramatic ethos than modes 3 or 7, so the supplication is relegated to the background before the figure of God who shows himself pious, full of mercy for those who invoke him. The piece takes a turn from supplication to praise, and from praying for God's intervention to contemplating him in his deepest self: in his tenderness and compassion.

In the first phrase, the cry Miserere mihi Domine moves within the richest and fullest scope of this mode 8, the fundamental and dominant G-C, but for that very reason it is not so much a cry for mercy as a humble presentation of a plea for mercy. However, what this melodic construction lacks in intensity, it makes up for in expressive force, moving in direct or almost direct leaps between G and C, which it will continue to do until the end of this first phrase. These rapid movements between the fundamental and the dominant, whether in ascending or descending movements within the scope of the same word (Miserere, quoniam), is what gives this supplication all the richness of mode 8. It is this richness that earned mode 8 the name of "perfect mode". What mode 8 expresses has a firmness and consistency of conviction and assurance that has no need of stridency or strong expressions to convey with intensity what it wants to present.

After the initial supplication, Miserere, the text continues: quoniam ad te clamavi tota die. The melody takes up and extends with a tristrophe the C of the previous clause in quoniam, and then there is an abrupt descent to the fundamental G around which the melodic movement develops to express the cry of the soul that pleads: ad te clamavi. It is the only passage in the piece that moves to the low register and by joint degrees, giving an overall impression of intimacy and serenity in the plea for mercy. After this, this development around the G sets up a rapid melodic ascent to the C and in the dominant is sustained in a tristrophe, again, then back to the G in a very firm cadenza that rests four times on the fundamental. 

In the second phrase instead of showing the qualities of his supplication, the prayerful soul is now going to base his plea on the qualities of goodness that his Creator has: Thou, Lord, art gentle and benign; the melody weaves all this musically around the dominant and from there continues to rise until it reaches D and exclaims: quia tu Domine suavis ac mitis es (for Thou, Lord, art gentle and benign). To make this theological turn from the supplication he began in the first phrase, he repeats the same intonation beginning of the piece with a G-C ascent (quia tu Domine). However, instead of staying on C, the melodic movement makes a slight semitone cadence on B, thus initiating a melodic change in keeping with what he is about to say about God. Indeed, the semitone cadence lends a delicacy to the melody that allows it to be very expressive in describing God: Thou art gentle and benign.

These attributes are all woven around that B which appears six times, and there it stops for a moment to begin a melodic ascent towards a higher fifth in copiosus. Mercy is overflowing, very abundant (et copiosus in misericordia), and to proclaim the latter, the F is reached, the melodic summit of the piece. That melodic height is used not to plead but to acknowledge that the Lord is "abundant in mercy" (et copiosus in misericordia), putting all the musical emphasis on "abundant" (copiosus), it receives a "copious" load of notes, a beautiful melodic turn that develops in the treble. Then comes the noun misericordia, for which the melody returns to the semitone range of B, ascends again to the passing F and finishes singing the "misericordia" with a rich and gradual cadence that will settle back into a semitone cadence. From there the melodic movement will go on to conclude the piece: omnibus invocantibus te is a whole long cadenza that descends from the dominant C to the fundamental G. However, whereas at the beginning of the piece the G-C movement was agile and fast, it is now slow, like all cadences, and in stages. The melody makes a first descent into the A de omnibus, dilating the musical expression, just as mercy extends to all, passing from the initial miserere mihi (mercy "with me"), to the final omnibus (with all) to reach the fundamental, where the man pleading for mercy was found. After this, in invocantibus, the melody rises again in the C that begins a long final cadence of the whole piece that musically confirms what the psalmic text says: this copious mercy is no longer only for this troubled man, but for "all those who invoke him", multiplying the notes, extending musically up to the fundamental G, thus giving a climate of serene security to all those who invoke his love. But the whole atmosphere has changed, for it is no longer the troubled man asking for mercy for himself, as at the beginning, but, having gone through that experience of the abundance of his mercy, the Introit antiphon was transformed into a true contemplation of that God of mercy.