314 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts , a/nd Letters. 
The tropes of Matins naturally attached themselves almost 
exclusively to the musical elements of the office, and especially 
to the responsories. Of this particular class of tropes alto¬ 
gether the most conspicuous are those attached to the famous 
Descendit , which is found, usually, as the third, sixth, or ninth 
of the responsories of Christmas. The responsory Descendit 
untroped stands as follows : 
respoxsorium : Descendit de coelis missus ah arce Patris. 
Introivit per aurem Yirginis in regionem nostram, indutus 
stolam purpuream: ot exivit per auream portam lux et decus 
universse fabrics mundi. Versus: Tanquam sponsus Do- 
minus procedens de thalamo suo. Indutus. 1 
At an early period it was customary to provide a long series of 
vocalizations, or musical notes, to he sung over a prolongation 
of the syllable fa of the word fabricce . Thus in the remark¬ 
ably orthodox Liber Responsalis (saec. x) of Hartker we find 
the following: 
Responsorium : Descendit de celis missus ah arce Patris. 
Introiuit p er aurem Virginis in regionem nostram indutus stola 
purpurea. Et exiuit per auream portam lux et decus universe 
fabrice mundi. 
Pa .bricse mundi. 2 
Fa.bricse mundi. 
Fa.hricse mundi. 
Versus: Tamquam sponsus Dominus procedens de thala¬ 
mo suo. Et ex <iuit>. 
Gloria Patri et Filio et SpirituI Sancto. 
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in secula seen- 
lorum., Amen. 
Tamquam sponsus Dominus procedens de thalamo suo. Et 
exiuit. 3 
The musical development illustrated here was followed natur- 
1 Migne, Pat. lat Vol. LXXVIII, col. 734. As to the normal man¬ 
ner of singing a responsory see below pp. 344-346. 
2 The broken lines represent long melodies written in neums. 
9 Paleographic Musicale, Deuxieme Serie, Vol. I, Solesmes, 1900, 
pp. 45-46. 
