A lyrical prayer, chanted by a deacon once a year during the Easter Vigil, to bless the Paschal candle and to celebrate its symbolism. It is called Exultet (the first word of the text), Laus cerei, Benedictio cerei or Praeconium paschale.
The text of the Exultet has formed part of the Roman rite from the Middle Ages, but its remote ancestry goes back to the ancient Gallican liturgy. It appears first in the Missale gothicum of Autun (8th century), and the Missale gallicanum vetus (second half of the 8th century). From there it passed into the Frankish Gelasian sacramentaries, then into the Gregorian sacramentaries; lastly it entered the Roman liturgy, like many other Gallican chants and rites.
In central and, especially, southern Italy, where the Exultet text was different from the Gallican version, the Benedictio cerei was inscribed on long rolls which the deacon placed on the ambo from which the Gospel was normally read in the Mass (see illustration). On these rolls the miniatures appear upside down, relative to the text, illustrating the themes celebrated in the Exultet: the night, the world, the crossing of the Red Sea, Christ’s resurrection and so on
The literary structure of the Exultet falls into two distinct parts: the introduction, Exultet jam angelica turba, in an exhortatory style comparable to that of the invitatory or Preface which preceded prayers in the Gallican liturgy; then the Preface consecrating the candle, formerly improvised or composed by the deacon. The text of this Preface subsequently crystallized in different forms in different regions.
The introduction, Exultet jam angelica turba, seems to have originated in the 4th or 5th century. It was already known in Pavia in the time of Ennodius and it became obligatory in all those liturgies that had adopted the principle of a Preface to consecrate the Paschal candle. In it there are several expressions characteristic of the Gallican liturgies, such as the apostrophe fratres carissimi or the couplets Rex aeternus and divina mysteria (a faulty reading for ministeria). The concluding doxology of this invitatory introduces the opening dialogue of the Preface.
The Preface consecrating the candle begins with a set phrase normally found in the Gallican liturgies: ‘Dignum et justum est, vere quia dignum et justum est’. In the Roman sacramentaries this became shortened to: ‘Vere dignum et justum est’, as in the other Prefaces. The text then treats the essential themes in lyrical vein; their exact treatment was formerly left to the discretion of the individual deacon. It was even permitted to use verse. St Augustine quoted three lines from a Benedictio cerei he had composed in his youth, when he was still a deacon, and an Escorial manuscript contains a metrical benediction (see G. Mercati: Un frammento delle Ipotiposi de Clemente Alessandrino: paralipomena ambrosiana, con alcuni appunti sulle benedizioni del cereo pasquale, Rome, 1904, p.40) whose attribution to him rests, no doubt, on this quotation. The deacon had then to expand on the themes that naturally came to mind on Easter eve: the miracles wrought at the first Passover when the Jews were freed from their captivity in Egypt, and the redeeming work of Christ in atoning for the sin of Adam and freeing the faithful from the bondage of the Devil. In fact there are some differences between the ancient versions at this point: some stress Christ’s redemption of the faithful, whereas others sing of the return of spring and the rebirth of nature; all, however, draw on the Georgics of Virgil, with his mention of the bees and their virginal manner of reproduction.
Borrowings from Virgil are, moreover, not limited to this theme, and are often introduced very skilfully, in a way that recalls the literary habits of St Ambrose. This fact, and certain idiosyncratic expressions, have led some literary critics, following Honorius of Autun, to attribute the composition of the Gallican Exultet to St Ambrose; but there is no solid evidence to support their theory. The similarities between the works of Ambrose and the Praeconium paschale may be explained by the simple fact that his writings form one of the general sources of the Gallican liturgy, which is made up of all kinds of borrowings. The similarities in style between the Exultet and Easter prayers in the Gallican rite, and the analysis of the biblical quotations (and so on) in the Exultet suggest merely that the composer of the Exultet was a member of the Gallican Church who was familiar with the writings of St Ambrose and Virgil, and who lived, no doubt, in the 6th century.
It is thus possible to reach fairly definite conclusions concerning the text of the Exultet. The question of the melody, however, is more complicated. If a single melody for the Exultet had been preserved in the traditions of different regions, musical criticism might be able, by analysis alone, to determine if it could be contemporaneous with the 6th-century text: this is, indeed, possible with the Te Deum, also Gallican in origin. But, in fact, several different versions survive for the introduction and sometimes even for the Preface of consecration.
According to a Roman-Frankish ordo of the 8th or 9th century, the deacon is required, after the dialogue following the introduction (‘Dominus vobiscum. Et cum spiritu tuo. Sursum corda’ and so on), to chant the consecration of the candle to the tone of the eucharistic Preface that opens the Canon of the Mass: Inde vero [diaconus] accedit in consecrationem cerei decantando quasi canonem (M. Andrieu: Ordines romani, Leuven, 1931–56, iii, 404, Ordo XXVIII). This pattern is followed in the vast majority of Exultet sources: the second, or consecratory part, is chanted as a solemn recitative. As in all recitatives of this type, this consists of an intonation, a recitation on one note and a final cadence. In longer phrases, an intermediary cadence followed by a second intonation interrupts the recitation on the single note. Naturally, this recitative is fitted to the text according to the rules of the cursus and of accentuation (see PalMus, iv, 171–96). The only departure from this basic musical scheme is found in the lyrical embellishment decorating the exclamation in admiration of the Easter night, as shown in ex.1. Occasionally, manuscripts give an even more extended development at this point.
This extremely simple recitative, identical with that of the eucharistic Preface, is, however, not universal. Some sources contain far more ornate melodies, with melismas at the intonations and cadences. Examples of these are to be found in Exultet rolls from southern Italy (PalMus, xiv, 390ff) and in printed missals from Spain, where the melody is adapted from the ornate recitative of the Oratio Jeremiae, read at the Office of Tenebrae on Holy Saturday.
In Milan, the melody of the Ambrosian Praeconium paschale is mixed: its introduction is chanted as a syllabic recitative, but its Preface is sung to a melody with embellished cadences. This is a unique tradition, both melodically and textually: in Milan, the Exultet Preface differs from the accepted text of the Roman Missal.
Although most sources of the Exultet thus present the second part, or Preface, as a recitative, identical with that of the eucharistic Preface, the melody for the first part, or introduction, varies considerably according to region. This observation is all the more surprising since it is precisely this 4th- or 5th-century introduction (held in common by all the churches) which adopted the custom of blessing the Paschal candle, whereas the Preface, which follows, is the variable element, textually speaking. Thus it is difficult to determine which of the three main types of recitative listed below is the earliest:
(1)
A two-note recitative covering a major 3rd (C to E, F to A or G to B
), with the recitation on
the central note (D, G or A respectively); the upper note of the recitation is
used for accentual decoration, and the lower note for the cadences. This very
austere and sober melody was used at Lyons, Chartres, St Bénigne, Dijon, and a
few of the Norman monasteries reformed by Guillaume de Volpiano, abbot of St
Bénigne (d 1031).
(2) A melody covering a minor 3rd (D to F) found in most manuscripts from the west of France and those of the Cistercians. It is also found in Paris, but with accentual decoration on the G.
(3) The melody given in the Missale romanum of Pius V, which consists of two types of intonation (G, A–C, C and D–A, A, C) and two types of cadence, an intermediary cadence on the A and more important cadences on the E. The antecedents of this melody are to be found in manuscripts from Germany and north-eastern France, and above all in Anglo-Norman manuscripts. The Exultet melody was, however, rather more developed in the Salisbury rite than it was in Normandy (GS, pl.105). This melody, which had been adopted by the Dominicans and Franciscans, was introduced to Rome, probably in the late 1250s, in the official Franciscan Missale romanum; and even in an earlier Franciscan missal from Salerno (I-Nn, vi.G.38), from about the mid-13th century, the Beneventan melody has been deleted and replaced by a Norman melody. The Franciscan missal of the 1250s was the direct ancestor of the Roman missal of Pius V (1570), which includes the official Roman melody, now edited more accurately in Officium et missa ultimi tridui majoris hebdomadae (Solesmes, 1923).
MGG2 (K. Livljanic)
E. Langlois: ‘Le rouleau d’Exultet de la Biblioteca Casanatense’, Mélanges archéologiques et historiques de l’Ecole française de Rome, vi (1888), 466–82
Le répons-graduel Justus ut Palma, PalMus, 1st ser., ii (1891/R), pls.17 and 26
A. Ebner: ‘Handschriftliche Studien über das Praeconium paschale’, KJb, viii (1893), 73–83
Le codex 121 de la Bibliothèque d’Einsiedeln (Xe–XIe siècle): antiphonale missarum Sancti Gregorii, PalMus, 1st ser., iv (1894/R), 171–96
A.M. Latil: Le miniature nei codici cassinesi, iii: Le miniature nei rotuli dell’Exultet (Monte Cassino, 1899–1901)
E. Berteaux: L’art dans l’Italie méridionale (Paris, 1904)
A. Latil: ‘Un “Exsultet” inedito’, Rassegna gregoriana, vii (1908), 125–34
G. Suñol: ‘Un canto spagnolo dell’Exultet’, Rassegna gregoriana, ix (1910), 129–42
Le codex 903 de la Bibliothèque nationale de Paris Xie siècle: graduel de Saint-Yriex, PalMus, 1st ser., xiii (1925/R), 71–3
Le codex 10673 de la Bibliothèque vaticane fonds latins (XIe siècle): graduel bénéventain, PalMus, 1st ser., xiv (1931–6/R), 375–424, pls.70, XXVI, XXVII, XLVI
G. Suñol: Praeconium paschale ambrosianum ad codicum fidem restitutum (Milan, 1933)
G. Suñol: ‘Versione critica del canto del “Praeconium paschale ambrosianum”’, Ambrosius, x (1934), 77–95
E.H. Kantorowicz: ‘A Norman Finale of the Exultet and the Rite of Sarum’, Harvard Theological Review, xxxiv (1941), 129–43
B. Fischer: ‘Ambrosius der Verfasser des österlichen Exultet?’, Archiv für Liturgiewissenschaft, ii (1952), 61–74
G. Benoit-Castelli: ‘Le “Praeconium paschale”’, Ephemerides liturgicae, lxvii (1953), 309–34
M. Huglo: ‘L’auteur de l’Exultet pascal’, Vigiliae christianae, vii (1953), 79–88
J. Pinell: ‘La benedicció del ciri pasqual i els seus textos’, Liturgica 2: Cardinali I.A. Schuster in memoriam, Scripta et documenta, x (Montserrat, 1958), 1–119
J. Bernal: ‘La “laus cerei” de la liturgia hispana: estudio crítico del texto’, Angelicum, xli (1964), 317–47
A. Carucci: Il rotolo salernitano dell’Exultet (Salerno, 1971)
G. Cavallo: Rotoli di Exultet dell’Italia meridionale (Bari, 1973)
G. Cavallo, G. Orofino and O. Pecere: Exultet: rotoli liturgici del Medioeve meridionale (Rome, 1994)
T.F. Kelly: ‘Stucture and Ornament in Chant: the Case of the Beneventan Exultet’, Essays on Medieval Music: in Honor of David G. Hughes, ed. G.M. Boone (Cambridge, MA, 1995), 249–76
T.F. Kelly: The Exultet in Southern Italy (New York, 1996)
MICHEL HUGLO/THOMAS FORREST KELLY