A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Tenebræ
TENEBRÆ (Literally, Darkness). The name of a Service appointed, in the Roman Breviary, for the three most solemn days in Holy Week, and consisting of the conjoined Matins and Lauds,[1] for the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, which are sung 'by anticipation' on the afternoons of the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The name is taken from the opening sentence of the Responsorium which follows the Fifth Lesson on Good Friday, Tenebræ factæ sunt—There was darkness.
The Service begins with three Nocturns, each consisting of three Psalms, with their doubled Antiphons, a Versicle and Response, and three Lessons, each followed by its appropriate Responsorium. The Psalms and Antiphons are sung in unisonous Plain Chaunt; and, at the conclusion of each, one of the fifteen candles on the huge triangular Candlestick by which the Chapel is lighted is ceremoniously extinguished. The Lessons for the First Nocturn on each of the three days are the famous 'Lamentations,' which have already been fully described.[2] The Lessons for the Second and Third Nocturns are simply monotoned. Music for the Responsoria has been composed by more than one of the greatest Polyphonic Masters; but most of them are now sung in unisonous Plain Chaunt. The Third Nocturn is immediately followed by Lauds, the Psalms for which are sung in the manner, and with the ceremonies, already described. Then follows the Canticle, 'Benedictus,' during the singing of which the six Altar Lights are extinguished, one by one. And now preparation is made for the most awful moment of the whole—that which introduces the first notes of the 'Miserere.'[3] The fifteenth candle, at the top of the great Candlestick, is removed from its place, and hidden behind the Altar. The Antiphon, 'Christus factus est obediens,' is sung by a single Soprano Voice; and, after a dead silence of considerable duration, the Miserere is sung, in the manner, and with the Ceremonies described in vol. ii. pp. 335–338. The Pope then says an appointed Prayer; the Candle is brought out from behind the Altar; and the Service concludes with a trampling of feet, sometimes said to represent the passage of the crowd to Calvary, or the Jews seizing our Lord.
The Services proper for Holy Week are described, in detail, in the 'Manuel des Cérémonies qui ont lieu pendant la Semaine Sainte,' formerly sold annually in Rome, but now very difficult to obtain. The Music was first published by Dr. Burney, in 'La Musica della Settimana Santa,' now very scarce, and has since been reprinted, by Alfieri, in his 'Raccolta di Musica Sacra.'
A minute and interesting account, though somewhat deformed by want of sympathy with the ancient Ritual, will be found in Mendelssohn's letter to Zelter, of June 16, 1831.