Kyrie

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For other uses, see Kyrie (disambiguation)}}}.

The Kyrie prayer, offered during the Roman Catholic Mass and in some other denominations (such as many in the Anglican Communion), led by the priest or celebrant, and repeated by the congregation. Though today usually recited in the vernacular, the traditional form of the Kyrie in Western Christianity is a transliteration of the Greek prayer into Latin, and is used in this form in Latin-language Masses.

''Κύριε ἐλέησον, Χριςτὲ ἐλέησον, Κύριε ἐλέησον.

Kyrie eleison; Christe eleison; Kyrie eleison.

:pronounced ['kir.i.e e.'le.i.son 'kris.te e.'le.i.son 'kir.i.e e.'le.i.son]

"Lord have mercy; Christ have mercy; Lord have mercy."

This prayer occurs early in the Ordinary of the Roman-Rite Catholic Mass, directly following the Penitential Rite. However, since Form C of Penitential Rite incorporates the Kyrie text, no additional Kyrie is recited when this form is used. The Penitential Rite and Kyrie are omitted when the Rite of Sprinkling is celebrated.

The Kyrie is the first sung prayer in the Ordinary of the pre–Vatican II Tridentine Mass, and is a mandatory part of any musical setting of the Mass. Kyrie movements often have an ternary (ABA) musical structure that reflects the symmetrical structure of the text. Even today the Kyrie is traditionally sung by the cantor, choir, and congregation when it occurs; musical settings of the prayer in styles ranging from Gregorian chant to Folk are popular.

Musical settings

The Kyrie was a very popular text for which to compose chants. Of 226 catalogued melodies, 30 appear in the Liber Usualis. In what are presumed to be the oldest versions, the same melody is repeated for the first eight iterations, and a variation used on the final line (that is, formally, aaa aaa aaa'). These repeats are notated by the Roman numerals "iij" (for three times) or "ij" (for twice). The Kyrie for the Requiem Mass in the Liber Usualis has this form. Later Kyries have more elaborate patterns, such as aaa bbb aaa', aaa bbb ccc', or aba cdc efe'. Note that the final line is nearly always modified somewhat; in some cases this may be because it leads into the Gloria better. In forms both with and without literal repeats, most Kyries in the Liber Usualis have a closing phrase used in nearly all of the lines of the text. This in fact parallels the text, as each line ends with the same word "eleison."

Because of the brevity of the text, Kyries were often very melismatic. This encouraged later composers to make tropes out of them, either by adding words to the melisma (as how a sequence (poetry) is often considered), or extending the melisma. In fact, because of the late date of most Kyries, it is not always clear whether a particular Kyrie melody or the apparently troped text came first; it could just as easily be the case that a syllabic song was converted into a melisma for a Kyrie verse. In some cases, verses interpolate Latin text between each "Kyrie" (or "Christe") and "eleison."

Reference

See also

• List of Greek phrases

External links

• [Catholic Encyclopedia entry]

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