Today we celebrate the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time. To celebrate this Sunday, we at Neumz have chosen the communion chant Notas fecisti mihi. The text of this piece is taken from Psalm 15:11. The resurrection passage, like is also presented by Peter in the Acts of the Apostles 2:25 and the following verses. Indeed, it is the final part of the psalm in which the Sermon of Peter becomes what Christ says when he comes out of the tomb, and when he says: Notas mihi fecisti..., “You will show me the path to life, abounding joy in your presence” (Psalm 15:11). Additionally, St. Augustine masterly comments on this psalm: “You have made known through me [Christ] the paths of humiliation, that men might return to life, from whence they fell through pride; in whom because I am, You have made known to me. ‘You will fill me with joy with Your countenance’ (Psalm 15:11). You will fill them with joy, when they shall see You face to face; in whom because I am, You will fill me. Pleasure is at Your right hand even to the end. Pleasure is in Your favor and mercy in this life's journey, leading on even to the end of the glory of Your countenance.” 

On the other hand, in the Vetus Ordo, this communion is sung on Wednesday of the third week of Lent. On that day, in ancient times, the scrutiny of candidates for baptism took place in Rome, and the discernment as to matters of faith and conduct of life. Hence, this communion is sung in reference to the candidates for baptism who made these words their own: "You have revealed to me the paths of life." 

Finally, in this communion chant, the Church already sees the triumph of the Lord, with only a few weeks left before the end of Ordinary Time and of the Solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe. This piece is a canticle of this pilgrimage through the world, through the paths of life. The prayerful one is glimpsing the end. It is a glorious, triumphant end in which we can sing with all our being: you fill us with joy before your radiant face, Lord.

The melody is composed in mode VII, it expresses great enthusiasm, and it is full of triumphal ardor and happiness. The Graduale Novum indicates for this piece mode I and transcribes the melody in the F Clef in the third line. For the purposes of this commentary, we prefer to decline this proposal. 

The melodic movement starts in the heights of the mode, oscillating between the Mi and the Re, the dominant, with a special intensity, before closing the incise with Si, a degree present in the intermediate cadences of this piece. This beginning corresponds to the melodic climax of the piece, the prayerful one sings with immense fervor the proclamation of the great fruit of the resurrection: notes (thou hast made known to me, thou hast revealed to me the ways of life). Light has come into my life! In the following incise, vias vitae, the melody in a slight descent reaches for the first time the fundamental, the Sol, and from there, solemnly ascends in that journey towards the light of the high Re in the accent of vitae adorned with a beautiful porrectus, Re-Si-Do. This first phrase closes with a broad descent towards the Sol, thus forming a magnificent melodic arc symbolizing this pilgrimage along the paths of life. The two quilismatic movements of this section amplify, widen, and solemnize this journey through the world under the light of the Lord. Observe also the strong presence of the semitonal interval of Si-Do which denotes closeness, that tender love in communion with the Lord. We have risen to a new life. The Resurrection is that life in the clarity and the light that streams from the face of God, it is the new life with the Lord: to live in the light, in the clarity of his ways thanks to that new life in the presence of the Lord. 

The first two incises of the second phrase are constructed melodically with the thirds of Sol-Si-Re and Do as a structural degree between the Si and Re, and with a similar melodic movement: from the low to the high range and then the Si as an intermediate degree of rest. The Resurrection not only illuminates and makes known the ways of life but also fills with joy (laetitia) and makes one enjoy in contemplation the triumph of the Light, the shining face of the Lord: adimplebis me laetitia cum vultu tuo. It is a joy born in the depths of the soul, an awareness of the light that floods us. From the Sol, the melody rises agilely towards the Re with the characteristic ardor, enthusiasm, and strength of modo VII which shines brightly in these first two incises. In the high range, this inner joy bursts into a luminous joy. Observe in the word me, the semitone of Si-Do, it represents a relationship of closeness, of tender love with the Lord of which we spoke above: it denotes that dialogue between the creature and his Creator. And so, it is in laetitia. A pes quadratus, Si-Re, materializes that overflowing joy that expands in the posttonic syllables always oscillating in the semitonal interval: Re-Do-Si-Do Do Si.

In the last incise of this communion, cum vultu tuo Domine, with your face, Lord, the melody makes us taste and savor all the richness that flows from the contemplation of the face of the Lord. Two quilismatic movements expand and amplify this contemplation. The piece concludes with a broad cadential formula, tuo Domine, of great solemnity and majesty, as well as of great joy: the only bivirga of the piece appears in tuo and the last quilismatic movement accentuates this oscillation in the semitonal interval of Do-Si-(La). The closeness to the Lord, to the Light that guides us in our wanderings through life, enlivens us and almost makes us enjoy a foretaste of the Resurrection, here below, as a prelude to the triumph that will culminate in eternity.