Gloria in Excelsis Deo
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"Gloria in excelsis Deo" (Latin for "Glory to God in the highest") is the title and beginning of a hymn known also as the Greater Doxology (as distinguished from the "Minor Doxology" or Gloria Patri) and the Angelic Hymn.[1]
The name is often abbreviated to Gloria in Excelsis or simply Gloria.
It is an example of the psalmi idiotici ("private psalms", i.e. compositions by individuals in imitation of the Biblical Psalter) that were popular in the second and third centuries. Other splendid surviving examples of this lyric poetry are the Te Deum and the Phos Hilaron.[2]
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[edit] History
The hymn begins with the words that the angels sang when the birth of Christ was announced to shepherds in Luke 2:14. Other verses were added very early, forming a doxology,[2] which in the fourth century became part of morning prayers, and is still recited in the Byzantine Rite Orthros service.[1]
The Latin translation is traditionally attributed to Saint Hilary of Poitiers (c. 300-368), who may have learned it while in the East (359-360). [2] The Vulgate Latin translation of the Bible was commissioned only in 382.[3] The Latin hymn thus uses the word excelsis to translate the Greek word ὑψίστοις (the highest) in Luke 2:14, not the word altissimis, which was Saint Jerome preferred for his translation.
[edit] Present-day Greek text
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[edit] Present-day Latin text
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[edit] Liturgical use
In the Byzantine Rite, the Greater Doxology is used in the Orthros and in the Apodeipnon services, but not in the Divine Liturgy.[2] On the contrary, in the Roman Rite this hymn is not included in the Liturgy of the Hours, but is sung or recited in the Mass, after the Kyries, on Sundays outside of Lent and Advent and on solemnities and feasts.[1]
In the Church of England Book of Common Prayer of 1549, it was used in the same position as in the Roman Rite, but was later moved to the end of the service, immediately before the concluding blessing.[1] This was for centuries the official prayer book of the Anglican Communion, but the Common Worship provides two Orders, in one of which the hymn is in the earlier position. The American Prayer Book of 1928 allowed the hymn to be used in Evening Prayer.[1]
The hymn is used also in the Divine Service of the Lutheran Church and in the services of many other [1] Christian churches.
A tradition recorded in the Liber Pontificalis attributes to Pope Telesphorus (128–139?) the use of the hymn at the Mass of Christmas Day and to Pope Symmachus (498-514) its use on Sundays and the feasts of martyrs, but only by bishops; the right to use it was later extended to priests, at first only at Easter and on the day of their ordination, but by the end of the eleventh century priests, as well as bishops, used it in the Mass on Sundays and feasts outside of Lent and Pre-Lent. After the twelfth century Advent began to be considered a penitential period in imitation of Lent, to the exclusion therefore of the Gloria in excelsis Deo.[2]
[edit] Associated ritual
The Roman Missal of the Tridentine period instructed the priest, when saying the opening phrase "Gloria in excelsis Deo", to extend his hands and raise them to shoulder height and, at the word "Deo", to join them and bow his head. He was then to continue the recitation standing erect with hands joined and bowing his head to the cross at the words "Adoramus te", "Gratias agimus tibi", "Iesu Christe" (twice), and "Suscipe deprecationem nostram", and at the concluding phrase (as also at the concluding phrase of the Nicene Creed and the Sanctus), to make a large sign of the cross on himself.[9] At High Mass the priest intoned the opening phrase, while the deacon and subdeacon stood behind him; then they joined him at the altar and together with him quietly recited the rest of the hymn,[10] after which they sat down while waiting for the choir to finish its singing.
The revised Roman Missal says: "The Gloria is intoned by the priest or, if appropriate, by a cantor or by the choir; but it is sung either by everyone together, or by the people alternately with the choir, or by the choir alone. If not sung, it is to be recited either by all together or by two parts of the congregation responding one to the other."[11] No particular ritual gestures are prescribed.
[edit] Musical settings
The Gloria was sung to a wide variety of melodies. Modern scholars have catalogued well over two hundred of them.[12] The Roman Missal indicates several different plainchant melodies. In addition, several "farced" Glorias were composed in the Middle Ages and were still sung in places when the Roman Missal was revised by order of Pope Pius V in 1570. These expanded the basic Gloria by, for instance, adding to mentions of Jesus Christ a mention of some relationship between him and his mother. The use of these additional phrase in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary was so common that in editions of the Roman Missal earlier than the 1921 revision, the text of the Gloria was followed by the rubric: "Sic dicitur Gloria in excelsis Deo, etiam in Missis beatæ Mariæ, quando dicenda est" (When the Gloria in excelsis Deo is to be recited, it is recited in this way, even in Masses of Blessed Mary).[13]
Almost all polyphonic settings of the Mass include the Gloria. In addition, there are settings for the Gloria alone, including:
- Gloria (Vivaldi), RV 589, and the less famous Gloria RV 588.
- Gloria (Poulenc)
- Gloria (Rutter)
- A setting of the Gloria by Handel for solo soprano, lost and then discovered at the end of the twentieth century.[14]
There are also many musical settings of translations of the Gloria into various languages.
The Gloria has also encouraged the writing of popular hymns such as Angels We Have Heard on High, Glory to God, Angels from the Realms of Glory, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, and While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks
[edit] Media
Gloria 5 from the Roman Gradual
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press 2005 ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3), article Gloria in Excelsis
- ^ a b c d e Catholic Encyclopedia: Gloria in Excelsis Deo
- ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, article Vulgate
- ^ ΟΡΘΡΟΣ
- ^ ΟΡΘΡΟΣ ΕΝ ΤΑΙΣ ΚΥΡΙΑΚΑΙΣ
- ^ The Service of the Sunday Orthros
- ^ Missale Romanum 2002, p. 510 (electronic text)
- ^ The Ordinary of the Mass according to the English Missal
- ^ Ritus servandus in celebratione Missae, IV, 3 (page LVI of the1962 typical edition)
- ^ Ritus servandus in celebratione Missae, IV, 7 (page LVI of the 1962 typical edition)
- ^ General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 53
- ^ Definitions for Medieval Christian Liturgy
- ^ See, for instance, page 216 of the 1862 printing by Pustet
- ^ The Newly Discovered Musical Composition by Handel
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
 Gregorian chants of the Roman Mass |
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Kyrie | Gloria | Credo | Sanctus | Agnus Dei | Ite missa est or Benedicamus Domino |
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