Young—Officium Pastorum. 
345 
chorus Quern vidistis, Pastores, dicite? Annuntiate 
nobis in terris quis apparuit ? Saturn vidimus 
in choro angelorum Salvatorem Dominum. 
cantor: Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto; sicut 
erat in principio et nunc et semper et in saecula 
saeculorum, Amen. 
chorus: 1STatum vidimus in choro angelorum Salvatorem 
Dominum. 
cantor: Quern vidistis, Pastores, dicite? Annunciate 
nobis in terris quis apparuit? Saturn vidimus 
in choro angelorum Salvatorem Dominum. 
chorus: Quern vidistis, Pastures, dicite? Annuntiate 
nobis in terris quis apparuit? Natum vidimus 
in choro angelorum Salvatorem Dominum. 
In this form of rendition, the whole response 1 is sung hy the 
soloist ( cantor, or praecantor ), to whom the chorus ( succen - 
tores) respond by repeating the entire response. The soloist 
then sings the verse (versus), and the chorus once more sing 
the entire response. After the soloist has sung the doxology 
(Gloria Pain), the chorus sing the latter half of the response; 
and then the soloist and chorus, in turn, repeat the entire re- 
cponse. 
Although the musical and liturgical splendor of this formula 
is gratifying to contemplate, this form of responsory fails to 
arrive at what is, for us, most important: dramatic dialogue. 
The singing of the entire response by one voice, or group of 
voices, annuls the dramatic possibility so obviously present in 
the text. 
Let us pass on, then, to a second method of rendering the 
same text, a method which, though perhaps less Homan, had 
begun to establish its predominant vogue outside Home, espec¬ 
ially north of the Alps, even before the year 800 : 2 
1 By mediaeval writers the word responsorium is used both for the 
first part of the liturgical element before us, down to the versus, and 
for the whole piece, including both responsorium and versus. To 
avoid confusion in mj’ explanation I use the word responsory to 
designate the whole piece and the word response to designate the 
first part of the piece, down to versus. 
2 See Wagner, pp. 137-138. 
