Editing Tenebrae (section)

====Music====
{{see also|Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet|Leçons de ténèbres|Responsories for Holy Week|Psalm 51#Musical settings}}
[[File:Jeremia Lamentationes.jpg|thumb|"The saddest melody within the whole range of music": the opening of the Tenebrae chanting of the [[Book of Lamentations]] of the Prophet Jeremiah]]
The lessons of the first [[nocturn]] at [[matins]] are taken on all three days from the [[Book of Lamentations]] and are sung to a specific [[Gregorian chant|Gregorian]] [[reciting tone]],<ref>[http://www.musicasacra.com/pdf/liberusualis.pdf Liber Usualis, p. 631]. Other Gregorian melodic patterns are found in manuscripts, but only this one is now commonly used ([https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0012_0_11786.html Lamentations, Book of.]</ref> which has been called "the saddest melody within the whole range of music".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Km0hCgAAQBAJ&dq=tenebrae+saddest+melody&pg=PT161 John F. Sullivan, ''The Externals of the Catholic Church'' (Aeterna Press 1951)]</ref> The [[Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet]] have been set to polyphonic music by many composers, including [[Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina|Palestrina]], [[Thomas Tallis|Tallis]] and [[Orlande de Lassus|Lassus]]. Such High-Renaissance polyphonic choral settings of Lamentations at Tenebrae, culminating in those of Lassus (1584), share the same texts with, but in musical idiom are to be distinguished from, the French Baroque genre of [[Leçons de ténèbres]], as composed by [[Marc-Antoine Charpentier]] (54 settings, H.91 - H.144), [[Michel Lambert]], and [[François Couperin]]. In the 20th century [[Ernst Krenek]] wrote a ''[[Lamentatio Jeremiae prophetae (Krenek)|Lamentatio Jeremiae prophetae]]'', Op. 93 (1941–1942), and [[Igor Stravinsky]] composed ''[[Threni (Stravinsky)|Threni]]'' (1957–1958).

Each day, the lessons of the second nocturn are from writings of [[St. Augustine]], and the lessons of the third nocturn from two [[New Testament epistles]]. These are chanted to the ordinary [[Reciting tone|lesson tone]] and have been relatively neglected by composers, though there are a few settings by [[Manuel Cardoso (composer)|Manuel Cardoso]].

The [[Tenebrae responsories]] have been set by, among others, [[Lassus]], [[Carlo Gesualdo|Gesualdo]], [[Tomas Luis de Victoria|Victoria]], [[Marc-Antoine Charpentier]], [[Francesco Antonio Vallotti]], and [[Jan Dismas Zelenka]]. [[Gregorio Allegri]]'s [[Miserere (Allegri)|setting of the ''Miserere'' psalm]], to be sung at the Tenebrae Lauds, is one of the best known compositions for the service. Also Gesualdo includes a setting of that psalm in his ''[[Responsoria et alia ad Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae spectantia]]'', along with a setting of the Benedictus.