Commemoration of the Passion narratives of Christ's betrayal and crucifixion inspired some of the most potent liturgical events of the Catholic rite. On the evenings of each of the three days before Easter, for instance, the Office of Matins was conducted in a service of "Tenebrae," in which the altar candles are gradually extinguished to leave the congregation in symbolic darkness. This liturgy, in turn, inspired the priest-composer Tomás Luis de Victoria to compose a rich series of motets on liturgical Passion texts, the Tenebrae Responsories. The last Responsory for the liturgy of Good Friday, the day of crucifixion itself, sung at night in near-complete darkness, presents the text "Caligaverunt oculi mei a fletu meo"—"My eyes have become dim with my weeping."

Victoria's setting of this text from the book of Job follows precisely the common refrain structure of all the Responsories, with an added repeat due to its liturgical finality: aBcBaB. It takes the same vocal scoring and mode (or key) as the other pieces. But despite these formal constraints, Victoria produces a profoundly affective lament. One element contributing to its pathos is the high level of chromaticism present. All eighteen of his Tenebrae Responsories use manifold accidentals for emotional effect, but Caligaverunt has perhaps the highest concentration, and certainly has some of the most affective turns of chromatic pitches in immediate proximity (one need search no further than the opening bass line!). Furthermore, most of the melodic gestures throughout the piece descend. At one point (text "quia elongatus est a me"), Victoria alludes to an earlier Responsory, Eram quasi agnus, with a striking descent through a complete octave. Elsewhere, the motive of a descending tetrachord (four notes), quite common in secular music as a marker of lamenting, evokes the sense of texts such as "fletu meo" ("my tears"), and "si est dolor similis" ("if there be any such sorrow").

Another rhetorical gesture of pathos in Victoria's setting comes just before the refrain, at the text "See, all ye people!" The rhetorical address explicit in the text is set to an explicit declamation in a single voice ("Videte") and a nearly congregational answer in homophony ("omnes populi"). As if the plangency of the setting were not strong enough, the punch line of the refrain, "See if there be any sorrow like my sorrow," is heralded by such an entry. This plangent question is insistently asked, furthermore, three times according to the liturgical structure—and the congregation, presumably, would leave with Victoria's chords ringing in their ears as they depart the Tenebrae service in silence.



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