Night closes on Passion Sunday: two weeks before Easter, the penitent Church sings in anticipation of the Cross which both humbles the believer and gives them victory. At Vespers this evening, and during Holy Week, the ancient hymn to the Holy Cross Vexilla regis concludes the liturgy. Written in A.D. 569 by the poet and bishop of Poitiers, Venantius Fortunatus (whose pen also gave to the world the hymn Pange lingua), Vexilla regis sings of the Cross as a royal banner, paradoxically the instrument both of Christ's death and of His victory. Pierre de la Rue composed a somber four-voiced motet incorporating both Venantius' hymn and two Passion lessons from the Gospel of Matthew (26:38 and 27:50). Three voices sing the hymn text, with the uppermost voice clearly presenting the melody associated with it. But La Rue skillfully gives a different plainchant melody and text to the Contratenor voice, which intones the Gospel lessons in which Christ shares His sorrow with the disciples, cries in a loud voice, and gives up the ghost. Three times the combination of these two chants moves the composite harmony from a bright F major down to darker Dorian cadences; the contrapuntal writing remains simple and austere throughout. La Rue's only known double-texted motet echoes the simplicity of his time's popular devotional music; in addition to serving the liturgy of a particularly solemn Vespers, it's simplicity suggests music for a slow candlelight processional.

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