The only text-derived symbolism one can point to in the Credo are the virtually inescapable
contrasting melodic contours on the phrases “descendit de coelis” and “et ascendit in coelum.” To
contradict the implied “directions” in the text at these points would be bizarre. The reason why this
particular pair of images has become such a compulsory trope or “figure” for translation into sound seems
to be precisely that it is a pair—or rather, an antithesis. (By way of contrast, look back at Ex. 16-1, the
Easter responsory chant, and note how the single word “descendit,” in the absence of its opposite, is
allowed to ascend melodically.) As we shall see in the next chapter, figural symbolism in music thrives
on antithetical relations, and antithetical figures in texts seem to demand musical illustration.
EX. 16-11 Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Missa Papae Marcelli, Agnus Dei, mm. 1–15