A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Veni Sancte Spiritus

by William Smyth Rockstro

VENI SANCTE SPIRITUS. A Prose, or Sequence, sung, in the Roman Church, on Whitsunday, and during the Octave of Pentecost, between the Epistle and Gospel. The text, in Trochaic Dimeter Catalectic, arranged in strophes of three verses, the two first of which rhyme together, while the third verse in every strophe ends in the syllable 'um,' was written in the tenth century, by King Robert of France, and, in graceful and touching simplicity, has never been surpassed. Whether or not King Robert also composed the old Ecclesiastical Melody—a very fine example of the use of Mode I.—it is impossible to say. It is, however, quite worthy of the text, both in sentiment and in graceful freedom of construction.

Veni Sancte Spiritus has not been so frequently treated by the Polyphonic Composers as some of the other Sequences. Palestrina has, however, treated it more than once, in settings of the highest order of excellence.

[ W. S. R. ]