Misericordia Domini plena est terra, alleluia: verbo Dei caeli firmati sunt, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.
“The earth is full of the Lord’s mercy, hallelujah; by God’s word the heavens were made, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.” (Ps 32(31):5–6)
Click here to listen to an audio of the chant.
Sung by Liborius Lumma, Innsbruck (Austria).
Like we had several times before, we can see a play with the direction of the melody in this chant. It starts with small intervals and low pitches when the first sentence addresses earthly things. The intervals grow and the melody goes up when the second sentence addresses the heavens. And eventually the melody climbs up to its highest pitches in the final “alleluias.”
Singing this in the beginning of an Easter Mass is like slowly swinging into the happy and relaxed mood of salvation and liberation.
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