Tomorrow we celebrate the Second Sunday of Advent. To celebrate this second Sunday, we at Neumz have chosen the opening chant, Populus Sion. The text has been reformulated from the prophet Isaiah’s chapter 30, verses 19, and from 27 to 30. Let us look first of all at what is indicated in the original Vulgate: 

19 Populus enim Sion habitabit in Jerusalem: plorans nequaquam plorabis: miserans miserebitur tui, ad vocem clamoris tui: statim ut audierit, respondebit tibi.

27 Ecce nomen Domini venit de longinquo, ardens furor ejus, et gravis ad portandum; labia ejus repleta sunt indignatione, et lingua ejus quasi ignis devorans. 

28 Spiritus ejus velut torrens inundans usque ad medium colli, ad perdendas gentes in nihilum, et frenum erroris quod erat in maxillis populorum. 

29 Canticum erit vobis sicut nox sanctificatae solemnitatis, et laetitia cordis sicut qui pergit cum tibia, ut intret in montem Domini ad Fortem Israel. 

30 Et auditam faciet Dominus gloriam vocis suae, et terrorem brachii sui ostendet in comminatione furoris, et flamma ignis devorantis: allidet in turbine, et in lapide grandinis.

The biblical source of this entrance chant is clearly the 30th chapter of the prophet Isaiah. The text of this beautiful Introit offers us a remarkable example of the freedom with which composers of Gregorian pieces could make use of the biblical text. The composer has chosen short passages from these verses and then added a reference that profoundly changes the meaning of the text: Ecce Dominus veniet ad salvandas gentes, Behold, the Lord will come to save the nations instead of ad perdendas gentes, to end with the nations. Thus, in this Introit, Isaiah's announcement of God's future vengeance against the nations that ravaged Zion becomes a chant of jubilation and a joyful announcement that salvation for all peoples will come from Zion. From a fearful proclamation, it has become a joyful one, and now the proclamation is made by the Church in her Eucharistic celebration. 

In the Old Testament, the Messiah does not come to save the nations, he comes to save Israel, and he will crush the nations. The wrath of Yahweh mentioned in Isaiah 30 is directed against Assyria, the pagan enemy of the People of God, the oppressor that represented all of the nations. However, in the Introit Populus Sion, the opposite is stated. Jerusalem, "Populus Sion," is no longer invited to contemplate the vengeful destruction of the nations by Yahweh, but to bear witness to a universal salvation that is addressed not only to the Jews but to all the inhabitants of the earth. This is the great novelty, the great audacity, the great freedom of the Christian composer who does not hesitate to interpret the biblical text, to give it its full meaning. He writes his chant in the lightness of the salvation constructed by Christ, whose imminent coming he sings of and whose powerful and consoling voice he proclaims in the depths of the souls. What he announces is not a temporary action of the Lord, but the Lord himself, who comes to save us and to give us the joy of possessing him in our souls, where his voice will never cease to be heard if we know how to listen to it.

As for the melody, it is composed in VII mode. The modal choice is known to expose a problem in the first phrase. In the manuscript tradition, there are doubts among Gregorian chant transcribers as to whether to write the melody of this first phrase with the dominant in Re, in an atmosphere of VII mode or if to adopt a transposed protus with the fundamental in Sol and the dominant in Do, indicating the B-flat. Dominique Crochu, a member of our Neumz team, and a great connoisseur (expert) of the matter of the B-flat and these hexachordal problems, has carried out a study with more than 30 manuscript testimonies, specifically on this passage of the Introit Populus Sion. From his study, it becomes apparent that the Vatican edition is architecturally correct, that always the flat is indicated when the B appears in this first phrase. Dominique Crochu concludes that it is very likely that these flats, which create an atmosphere of protus in the scale of mode VII, are the cause of the doubts, on behalf of the transcribers, in the choice of the hexachordal scales. For all these reasons, we have decided to follow the version of the Vaticana with the B-flat and to discard the proposed hexachordal restitution of this first phrase from the Graduale Novum. We will be happy to show the study of our colleague's manuscript testimonies, to all those who wish to see it. Thus, this double-modal color corresponds perfectly to what the text chants. In the first phrase, an announcement full of peace and serenity of the coming of the Lord to Zion; it seems that the prophet, and after him, the Church, are less preoccupied with arousing the enthusiasm of the people with the good news that they announce. Instead, they express the intimate happiness that the vision that the coming of Christ produces in them. And in the second phrase, it becomes a jubilant hymn to that glorious voice, which God makes resound. Christ does not come only to spend a few years among us but to live in each one of us, forever in a friendship that will fill our hearts with joy. 

In the intonation, our Introit has the impetus that corresponds to the direct tone of a public announcement, it is a solemn affirmation, very enthusiastic, worthy of the majesty of mode I. From the Sol, the melody rises to the Do and goes to delight in the heights where Zion is situated, the city of summits. But after the first incise, the melodic movement is immediately tempered. In Ecce Dominus veniet, behold, the Lord is coming, a feeling of happy contentment, of calm fulfillment, dominates the incise. The presentative ecce unites the two incises, it is the presentation of someone who is seen, that is coming. The beautiful neumatic cut in the Do is emphasized, it adds to the majesty of the porrectus Re-Do-Re of the accent. From the Re, it returns to the Sol on the posttonic syllable, a very reverent and devout leap of a fifth.  And in Dominus, the Lord, the curtain finally opens for the Lord to advance victoriously, slowly, from the Sol to the Re, in a triumphant ascent, amplified by the quilismatic movement, rising to all. The accent of veniet and the accent of Sion in the first incise are given the same pes quadratus, majestic, Do-Re. The cadence of veniet is also similar to that of Sion, the veniet being an amplification of the first one. The textual and musical link between these two words further accentuates the force of the announcement: He is coming to Sion. In the third incise, the object of this coming is made explicit: ad salvandas gentes, to save the nations. It is a salvation that goes throughout the world and reaches everyone. It is enough to be open and welcoming in the depths of our being. And this is how the melodic movement behaves, making this incise shine sublimely. From the heights, from the Re, accentuated by an initial neumatic cut, the prayerful one sings that gradual, serene, confident descent of the Lord's salvation over the nations, so evocative of a long-awaited joy that we see coming at last. The melody closes this first phrase in gentes resting peacefully in the Sol. 

In the second phrase, Et auditam faciet Dominus, and the Lord will make one hear, we find the same start as in the incipit of the piece, Sol-Do-Do-Re, but from the salicus of the accent of auditam, Do-Do-Re, the prayerful one looks and cries out to heaven, in the unbridled and angelic enthusiasm of the heights of mode VII, the high Mi and Fa resound for the first time in the accent of faciet, like a burst of joy. In Dominus, we find a similar twist to that of Sion and veniet of the first phrase, the announcement (the Lord comes to Sion) continues to be repeated and amplified: a pes quadratus + porrectus appear but this time clearly established on the Re, the dominant of mode VII. This incise closes with a beautifully melodic descent on the last syllable of Dominus, full of reverent fervor, the Re is underlined with a neumatic cut and a devout pes subbipunctis that sets the melody momentarily on the La. The jubilant enthusiasm that colors this second phrase, resounds again, to burst forth in the following incise: gloriam vocis suae, the glory of His voice. Everything is majestic, everything is joyous, and everything is luminous in the radiant melody of this incise. Beginning with the vibrant impulse of the salicus of the accent of gloriam which in the Graduale Novum version returns the melody agilely by thirds, La-Do-Mi, to the high range: like the triumphant blast of a trumpet, that continues to resound strongly in the posttonic syllables. This is followed by the quilismatic movement of the accent of vocis, the second quilisma of the piece, which continues to amplify that glorious voice in the heights of the mode beyond the dominant—and ending with the cadential torculus in suae, which closes the incise in the high Re, contrasting with the cadential torculus of gentes or that of vestri, in the final cadence, which they do so in the Sol. 

With a masterful leap of a fifth, Re-Sol, in the last incise, the melody returns to the serenity that the intonation of the piece had: in laetitia cordis vestri, in the joy of your heart, the overflowing joy of the Church appears, which always leads to a deep and intimate feeling of gratitude, love, and tenderness. From the Sol, the melody rises with an impetus to the Do with a salicus in the accent of laetitia, joy. From the Do, the melodic movement bursts with jubilation towards the Mi on the posttonic syllable of laetitia. A jubilant, joyful chant that penetrates the hearts, cordis, of the heart: the enthusiasm, the ardor of the melody permeates the heart of the prayerful one. The melodic twist Si-Do-Re-Mi-Re-Do in the accent of cordis, is a palpitation that shows that the prayerful heart of the singer "already" lives this joy and happiness. In the posttonic syllable of cordis, the double clivis with the episema and again the quilisma, the third of the piece, solemnize, amplify this state of grace, this joy that happily takes refuge in the intimacy of the heart of the faithful who can only adore. Another leap of a fourth, Do-Sol, immerses us in the possessive vestris. This is definitively in the interior of the heart of the worshipper in whose depths the happiness of the awaited presence continues, and in which that unutterable state of grace, the fruit of the contemplation of the Coming of the Saviour continues to shine and resound in each one of us.