Tomorrow we celebrate the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time. To celebrate this Sunday, we at Neumz have chosen the Alleluia chant. The text of this piece is taken from Psalm 101, verse 16: a psalm of lamentation for the destruction of Jerusalem, the lament of the Jewish people in captivity. In the verse we sing there is a joyful prophecy of its future reconstruction and the peoples and kings who will come to worship and praise with awe the Name of the Lord in the rebuilt Jerusalem. But beyond the material city raised from its ruins, the other is also evoked: the heavenly Jerusalem where the Word became flesh, the substantial Name of God, which will dominate all kings and be seen in majesty in its infinite splendour. A future vision of eternity, when Christ, having completed the new Jerusalem, will reign in the splendour of an undisputed glory recognised by all peoples submitted to Love.

As for the melody, composed in mode 1, it has a great agility that corresponds to what it is announcing, a discreet joy that will burst forth in the jubilus alleluiaticus. We see long ascending and descending melodic chains: the melody takes on that joyful character typical of mode 1, starting from the fundamental D to rise to the dominant, the A, and settling on the F to go back up to the A and from there to reach the melodic summit of the piece, in the C, before returning in the intermediate cadence to the F. The outburst of this discreet and restrained joy is produced in the two repeated incisos, amplifying this feeling of immense happiness and hope, and then gradually subsides in the last two incisos of the jubilus, returning to the low register in a movement almost exclusively by joint degrees. 

That contained joy with which the jubilus ends extends throughout the first phrase of the verse thanks to a melodic synthesis in which the first clause and the last two clauses of the jubilus are taken up again: it is the joy of the Church that already sees the triumph of Christ and the splendour of this loving reverence of kings and peoples. This joy is mixed with contemplation and adoration which becomes more evident in nomen tuum. From adoration and contemplation we move to prostration, as the melody bows with total veneration at Domine where it reaches the low B, a reflection of this pious awe before the Lord. 

This pious awe is further manifested in gloriam, from the second phrase, but before that at omnes reges the melody quickly spans the octave, from low C to high C, the melody returning to the high register to settle strongly on the dominant A: a tinge of strong authority mingles with the joy that is heightened and elevated. However, this authority, the kings, the earthly rulers, ultimately prostrate themselves before the Lord and his glory: at terrae the melody returns to the low register of A, descends to F and then settles on D with an embellishment on C. In gloriam it becomes majesty, a grave majesty that lingers, solemn and sumptuous like the folds of a royal robe: the melody again quickly spans the octave, this time from the high A to the low A, the lowest note of the piece. Finally, in tuam, the joy, once again simple and light, is extended and the melody of the jubilus is taken up again, where it bursts out again in the two repeated incisos.