Post on 23-Jan-2023
“. . . And by the Holy Spirit he was incarnate of the
Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified
under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was
buried . . ..”1 This passage from the Nicene Creed,
translated here into English, has inspired history’s
greatest sacred composers to portray its power through music
brought into relief from the rest of the Creed. Sixteenth-
century composers Josquin des Pres, Crístobal de Morales,
and Giovanni Perluigi da Palestrina have all set this text
with strong cadences and have all depicted God’s loving gift
through clear, homophonic declamation. Canon and textural
variety also appear in order to enrich and adorn the musical
representation of the Savior in human form, one of the most
central concepts of the Christian faith.
Beethoven follows a long tradition of Roman Catholic
composers by clearly demarcating the “Et in carnatus est”;
in contrast to the three-four Allegro con brio that begins the
Credo, the “Et in carnatus est” is composed in two-four with
1 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Sunday Missal, PrayerBook and Hymnal for 2014 (New Jersey: Catholic Book Publishing Corp., 2013), 18.
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an Adagio tempo marking. A Common-time Allegro ma non troppo
follows.2 The “Et in carnatus est” is given more formal
independence by use of a contrasting key. C major dominates
the Credo prior to a modulation through C minor to E-flat
major. At the close of this short Adagio abundant in
emotion, indeed worthy of examination as a tonal narrative
in and of itself, a common-chord modulation into D major and
subsequent common-chord modulation to C major comprise the
most notable harmonic shifts.
Beethoven’s intention behind using E-flat major to
foreground this sacred text on Jesus Christ’s birth, death,
and burial is the subject of this study. A look at tonal
centers and modulations, vocal scoring and orchestration,
phrase structure and motivic development, dynamics, and
articulation will explain the inner workings of this
setting’s affective message. God’s love for humankind can
be easily related to the opening passage of Beethoven’s “Et
incarnatus est”, the tragic to the closing phrase. But a
2
All markings are taken from the Serie 19 Kirchenmusik edition of the Mass in C Major by Breitkopf & Härtel, which includes the Missa solemnis and Christus am Ölberge.
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more provocative and perhaps less obvious interpretation of
how Beethoven set the words “et sepultus est” to convey
consolation, faith, and a prefiguration of good’s triumph
over evil raises some important questions. This
interpretation will investigate Beethoven’s own theological
stance as well as his use of keys as they pertain to emotion
and drama.
Beethoven specialist William Meredith likened the
temporal aspects of music to the temporal aspects of drama
in his 2002 article entitled “Beethoven’s Sonata in A-flat
Major, Opus 110: Music of Amiability, Lament, and
Restoration.” He states, “What we know of the central
character of a drama in the first scene of the first act is
not how we understand her or him at play’s end.”3
Nevertheless, it is entirely possible that a number of any
character’s defining characteristics apparent early in a
play still form part of her or his persona later on. In a
manner similar to that in which Meredith addresses Romantic
3 William Meredith, “Beethoven’s Sonata in A-flat Major, Op. 110: Music of Amiability, Lament, and Restoration,” The Beethoven Journal 17 (2002): 14.
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music’s ultimate goal—the communication of the soul’s many
passions— distinguished musicologist Leo Treitler stresses
the importance of experiencing Beethoven’s compositional
craft in terms of how key centers interact and ultimately
generate narrative: “He composed with keys, as a playwright
with characters and plots.”4
It would seem then that the opening and closing
passages of the “Et incarnatus est” from Beethoven’s Mass in
C Major, though both in the same key, are fully capable of
conveying quite different meanings. Character development
is as present in music’s key centers as in the cast of a
play. The idea of two contrasting uses of E-flat major may
be supported by an examination of the changes in
orchestration (see Appendix, page 61 in the score).
On the first of two iterations of the word “coelis” the
orchestra sounds nearly as big as the most richly scored
section of the Credo. Before a paring down to only strings,
4
Leo Treitler, “‘To Worship That Celestial Sound’ Motives for Analysis,” The Journal of Musicology 1, no. 2 (1982): 170, accessed January 28, 2014 http://www.jstor.org/stable/763594.
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Beethoven employs divisi flutes, oboes, horns, and trumpets
alongside first and second violins doubling G Major to C
Major stops indicate a powerful sound. The full chorus is
marked forte, the entire orchestra fortissimo. And though the
vocal soloists are silent at this point, their entrances to
begin the “Et incarnatus est” portion of this movement of
the Mass appropriately express the subject of the text—God
on earth in human form.
A solo clarinet arpeggiating down a B-flat dominant
seventh chord (at concert pitch) leads from a short passage
for arco strings only into an even more bare use of the
orchestra than what led up to the key change—pizzicato at a
piano dynamic accompanying the SATB solo quartet.
Homorhythmic writing for the first measure and a quarter
connotes the intimacy of God among mankind—reconciliation
between the divine and the human.
Smooth, diatonic melody for the soloists, who sing
first in tenor/bass and soprano/alto pairs and then in
imitation, contrasts with the short, declamatory motives on
“descendit” from the previous full choral texture. These
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textural and stylistic changes speak of endearment and the
comfort of salvation as well as illustrating God before our
very eyes. If the fuller orchestration symbolizes the
magnificence of heaven, the texture post-key change sits God
down at our dinner table.
The first phrase is largely diatonic, ending in a
gentle half cadence on “virgine.” This particular
application of the key E-flat major hints at Beethoven’s
thorough understanding of Viennese Classical style. The D-
flat in the soprano is part of an established motif for this
key, a motif linked with religious sacrifice present in many
works from previous and contemporaneous composers, including
Beethoven’s teachers.5 How intriguing! While the text
speaks of Jesus’s virgin birth, Beethoven makes explicit use
of a melodic turn associated with having to give oneself up
for a greater good. At the most immediate level of text
expression this may not be entirely logical; there is
nothing about sacrifice yet. One may expect rejoicing or
5 John David Wilson, “Of Hunting, Horns, and Heroes: A Brief History of E-flat Major before the Eroica,” The Journal of Musical Research 32, no. 2-3 (2013): 174-77, DOI: 10.1080/01411896.2013.792037.
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absolute elation, yet Christ’s suffering is imminent. Such
a conflict actually fortifies this paper’s thesis, which
will be explored in more detail after a look at the
instrumentation that closes the “Et incarnatus est” (see
Appendix, page 64 in the score).
A short tenor solo modulates from loving E-flat major
to gloomy B-flat minor.6 Before the clear arrival in B-flat
minor the strings revert to playing arco, and the clarinets
and bassoons reenter. Heavier orchestration, more
chromaticism, and increasingly strong dynamics transition
from soli to full chorus. Throughout this section of the
Credo Beethoven anticipates the text on more than one
occasion. Tension builds and tonal centers begin to wander
at the words “et homo factus est” (and became man).
Discontent or perhaps even an unpleasant relationship with
God is illustrated through B-flat minor as the organ and
high winds reenter.7 I am surprised at the lack of hopeful 6
Rita Katherine Steblin, “Key Characteristics in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries: A Historical Approach,” (doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1981), 277-80,327-28.
7
Ferdinand Hand, Ästhetik der Tonkunst (1837) via Steblin,
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aspects in the treatment of this phrase. “Pro nobis” (for
us) is certainly capable of instilling a sense of
redemption, but instead diminished seventh harmonies and a
brief tonicization of E-flat minor—right before the
chromatic descent on “sub Pontio Pilato” (under Pontius
Pilate)—suggest anguish and despair.
The main focus of this paper is the music at the words
“et sepultus est” (and he was buried). At this point the
oboes and flutes have dropped out again, but most of the
full texture heard in the middle section remains. This
relatively dense orchestration could be seen to correspond
with the previous section, in which case it could convey a
similar sentiment. While entertaining the possible
interpretation of Beethoven’s treatment of “et sepultus est”
as one that evokes sadness without hope for relief, it is
important to examine other composers’ masses.
Mozart’s “Et incarnatus est” from the Coronation Mass
in C Major, K317, is similar to the setting being discussed
here in that it begins with a solo ensemble, the full choir
“Key Characteristics . . .,” 328.
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expresses the horrors of crucifixion and death, and a
relatively full orchestration closes the section. One main
difference between the Mozart and Beethoven settings is that
the former opts for a cadence in the minor mode, the latter
for the major mode. Cherubini and Schubert also choose to
cadence in the minor mode at “et sepultus est.” This may be
a reflection of earlier ideas about key characteristics
based on differences between the major and minor mode, as
opposed to the sharp/flat principle. The sharp/flat
principle developed from modes of thinking that attributed
more lively and intense affects to keys on the “sharp” side
of the circle of fifths while leaving tranquility and
reclusion to those on the “flat” side. A wide variety of
possibilities for combining mode and accidental-based
qualities (e.g., minor keys with many sharps) make the
sharp/flat principle an incredibly dynamic system.
From the last eighth note of the measure in which the
solo ensemble cadences on “virgine” to the first eighth note
of the following measure, a melodic diminished fourth sounds
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in the clarinets and bassoons. This interval is used
frequently throughout the rest of the movement.
Long before Beethoven’s active period as composer, but
not outside of his academic remit, the diminished fourth
stirred heated debate among musicians concerned with tuning
theory. Many considered it an impossible interval, one that
should not be used in composition, especially for the voice,
strings, and other instruments capable of microtonal
inflexion. According to Harvard professor Alexander
Rehding, the tumult over enharmonics (e.g., the diminished
fourth) continued on with early Classicists Rameau and
Rousseau.8 In observing Beethoven’s use of this interval,
one can make a strong case for his deliberately representing
turbulence and times of trouble for Christ and his
disciples.
The diminished fourth may contain a certain measure of
dissonance because of spelling. Though the diminished
fourth may appear to be enharmonic with the major third,
8 Alexander Rehding, “Rousseau, Rameau, and Enharmonic Furies in the French Enlightenment,” Journal of Music Theory 49, no. 1 (2005): 146, accessed 04/18/2014 http://0-www.jstor.org.opac.sfsu.edu/stable/27639393.
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slight inflections will distinguish this poignant interval
from the more consonant major third on certain instruments.
Its initial appearance directly following a cadence on a B-
flat major triad (at “virgine”) suggests D minor; here the
melodic interval is comprised of the third and raised
seventh scale degrees of D minor. The next two instances
suggest C minor and B-flat minor, respectively. Such bold
modulations as these may reflect the unstable nature of the
diminished fourth. Diminished seventh harmonies on E-flat
(directly following “sub Pontio Pilato”) and F (preceding
“et sepultus est”) lie under melodic diminished fourths in
the clarinets and bassoons, both instruments capable of
subsemitonal precision. Having presented these expressive
uses of the diminished fourth during the darkest passages of
text, I will show that the last instance of the diminished
fourth consoles.
Dovetailed with the choir’s penultimate iteration of
“est,” low strings and bassoons begin a short point of
imitation on the diminished fourth interval E-flat to B-
natural. Clarinets answer a measure later with the same
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notes. Pianissimo dynamics for all parts prepare the close of
the “Et incarnatus est”. Could this dynamic be indicative
of tranquility, a healing moment after the hysteria over the
crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ? I believe so, and I
point to changes in articulation to bolster my claim. Both
the soli opening and stormy second differ from the closing
section in regard to dynamics and articulation (see
Appendix, notes in red). The frequent slurs and more
constant dynamic level found in the closing section are
peaceful. There are no directions to play staccato and no
sforzati or surprising accents.
I have discerned that the diminished fourth alone is
not enough to generate the sound of assurance and faith.
Heard immediately after these last two iterations of the
structurally significant diminished fourth, the choral
bass’s final stepwise descent to the tonic—a descent that
appears in the bassoons, cellos, double basses, and organ as
well—confirms optimism and hope. Referring again to
Meredith’s article on Opus 110, I hope it will become clear
that “a sense of accepting joy passively, i.e., accepting or
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welcoming blessings, relief, consolation, reassurance, or
fulfillment, together with a feeling of ‘having come home’”
was likely what Beethoven had in mind when composing the
final cadence.9
Meredith quotes Deryck Cooke’s The Language of Music to
explain the use of a variant on the common 5-(4)-3-(2)-1
motive in the major mode. In this passage, Beethoven leaves
out but one note of this typical melodic pattern that, as
Cooke demonstrates, has been known to connote deliverance
and repose. Especially when compared to the dissonant
harmonies and wide leaps preceding this last glide home to
the tonic, the descending motive is able to soothe the pain
caused by the Jesus’s crucifixion and death. (See Appendix,
page 68 in the score, red ovals.)
Beethoven takes a similar approach for the Cantata on
the Death of Emperor Joseph II, WoO 87. Composed some
twenty years before the Mass in C Major’s 1807 premiere, the
opening movement of the Cantata, a lament on the emperor’s
death, cadences with a stepwise descent to E-flat in the 9 Deryck Cooke, The Language of Music (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1959), 130-33 via Meredith, “Beethoven’s Sonata . . .,” 23.
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bass before a short but expressive coda and affirmation of
E-flat major (see below).
The serene arrival in E-flat major.10
Apart from musical signifiers and descriptors,
Scriptural evidence of a triumphant mood amid the Passion of
Christ aides in showing humankind’s gratitude and comfort
expressed in the final measures of Beethoven’s “Et
incarnatus est”. Psalm 22, quoted by Jesus while he was
agonizing on the cross, speaks of the innocent and just
10 Ludwig van Beethoven, Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II, WoO 87, Serie 25, 264 (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1862-90), 1.
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believer who undergoes immense suffering but is ultimately
saved.11 This psalm begins, “My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me?” but concludes with the promise of spiritual
prosperity for the faithful.12 Biblical professor Michael
D. Guinan writes, “Psalm 22 is, thus, the prayer of a just
one who suffers innocently, of one who is surrounded by
enemies and mocked precisely because of his fidelity to God.
When God hears this cry and delivers, the just one offers
praise and thanksgiving to God.”13
At the Last Supper, as recounted in the Gospel
According to John (chapter 13, verse 31), Jesus shares a
piece of forward-looking wisdom when, after making it clear
that Judas Iscariot is the one who is to betray him and
Judas leaves the room, he says, “Now the Son of Man is
11 Mark H. Heinemann, “An Exposition of Psalm 22,” Bibliotheca Sacra 147 (1990): 286-308, accessed April 22, 2014 http://place.asburyseminary.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1178&context=asburyjournal.
12
Catholic Biblical Association of Britain, revised version by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, The Holy Bible (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006), 429.
13
Michael D. Guinan, O.F.M., “Psalm 22: ‘My, God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?,” Saint Anthony Messenger (April 2014), accessed April 18, 2014 http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Apr2004/Feature1.asp.
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glorified, and God is glorified in Him.”14 This is the
preemptive and unwavering faith that Beethoven expresses,
quite possibly a representation of his own faith in God’s
goodness when confronted with not only the tragedy of
deafness, but also with a host of emotional torments during
his childhood and his many failed romances as an adult.
A connection with Beethoven’s well-known love of nature
may be proposed; inherent in the magnificence of nature is
the reality of death, a reality in which Beethoven had
probably come to trust. He copied an excerpt from German
preacher and author Christoph Christian Sturm into his diary
that reads,
Nature is a glorious school for the heart! It is well;I shall be a scholar in this school and bring an eager heart to her instruction. Here I shall learn wisdom, the only wisdom that is free from disgust; here I shalllearn to know God and find a foretaste of heaven in Hisknowledge. Among these occupations my earthly days shall flow peacefully along until I am accepted into that world where I shall no longer be a student, but a knower of wisdom.15 14
Catholic Biblical Association of Britain, The Holy Bible, Gospel According to John, 92.
15
Christoph Christian Sturm, Betrachtungen über die Werke Gottes in Reich der Natur und der Vorsehung auf Alle Tages des Jahres (Frankfurt am Mayn: Bayrhoffer, 1775) in Ludwig van Beethoven, trans. and ed. Henry Edward Krehbiel,
16
This quote, especially the final sentence, suggests a
notion of death more inspired by transcendence and salvation
than by desolation.
The most stable grounds for a counterargument stating
that E-flat major conveys only disappointment here would be
semantic. “Et sepultus est” paints a dark picture indeed—
imagery of the tomb, death, decay. Would not such text be
more logically put to music in A-flat major or C minor?
Perhaps staying in B-flat minor would have fit the words
more tightly. As it has been shown with examples from
earlier in this setting of the “Et incarnatus est” portion
of the Credo, Beethoven has been known to juxtapose joyful
texts against ominous music, and vice versa.
A potentially controversial take on the circle of
fifths and its relationship to key characteristics may help
to clarify Beethoven’s choice of key. In addition to the
sharp/flat principle, probably the most widely accepted mode
of thinking about the various keys and their assortment of
Beethoven, The Man and the Artist: As Revealed in His Own Words (New York: B.W. Huebsch, 1905), 18.
17
narrative magic, German Romantic writers G.F. Ebhardt and
August Gathy made some observations according to the
properties of a circle, nature’s complete and perfect shape.
Gathy was of the mind that the keys gradually return to
where they began, with C Major: “All these fine descriptive
shadings gradually disappear as the two end points of the
circle come together again.”16 As the circle of fifths
comes to an end at F-sharp/G-flat the emotional
possibilities are exhausted. Is it possible therefore that
keys 180 degrees away from each other on the circle of
fifths hold comparable traits? One might not assume that D
major and A-flat major would have much in common; G major/D-
flat major, C major/G-flat, or F major/B major oppositions
are no more likely to be used interchangeably. I believe
that E-flat major and A major though, due in large part to
their key signatures’ Trinitarian symbolism, promise
artistic inventiveness. Both key signatures contain three
accidentals, and therefore one may lend to the other what is
16 Rita Steblin, A History of Key Characteristics in the Early Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Rochester: Rochester University Press, 1996), 165.
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lacking. E-flat major may be used to temper what would
sound too bright in A major, for example.
Beethoven finds concord with the historians and
theorists who corroborate three established praxes found in
Beethoven’s work: majesty, heroism, and triumph; love and
devotion to (and intimate conservation with) God; and
unhappiness in amorous relationships—darkness and night.17
These three well-documented uses of E-flat major have their
place in the present study, but there is something more. As
I have attempted to map, E-flat major in the context of
Beethoven’s “Et incarnatus est” from the Mass in C Major
expresses a warmth that, if not quite as celebratory as the
following “et resurrexit” surprise, does align with an
understanding of A major influential during Beethoven’s
working life. A major had a strong connection to hope,
especially as it concerns a reencounter with the beloved;
and while A major reminds us at times of a cheery, youthful
17
Paul M. Ellison, “Affective Organization in Beethoven’s Gellert Lieder, Opus 48: Affirming Joanna Cobb Biermann’s Theory on Beethoven’s Intended Order of the Songs,” The Beethoven Journal 25 (2010): 25-28, 31.
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disposition, Christoph Friedrich Daniel Schubart specifies
that this key’s characteristics include “trust in God.”18
One point simply cannot be argued: there is much more
to be written on these fifty-two measures of Beethoven. A
few more ideas will be enumerated before this paper
concludes:
After the final cadence of the “Et incarnatus est”
in E-flat major, Beethoven modulates to D major by
using a root position dominant seventh chord on E-
flat. This shift suggests augmented sixth to
dominant harmony, but the words “et resurrexit”
are in a new tonic—not the dominant of a new
tonic. I do not feel it is any coincidence that
Beethoven was able to infer key characteristics
from the dominant of the next key center. In
other words, affects pertaining to A major, a key
that would foresee a modulation to D major more
clearly than any other key would, are, as I hope
to have proved, represented in E-flat major.
18
Steblin, A History of . . ., 289.
20
The descriptor “night,” in spite of its ties to
sadness or pain or evil ghosts, holds an important
place in Holy Scripture, especially in the Gospel
According to John. An antithesis to Jesus as the
Light of the World, a lack of illumination marks
the absence of God or foretells betrayal, among
other lessons on following the Word.19 Keeping in
mind the modal mixture Beethoven employs on the
word “sepultus” (see Appendix, final system) and
modal mixture implying shadows and darkness in
Beethoven’s works in E-flat major, one could begin
quite an objection to the thesis I have developed.
Contemporaneous German musicians who worked with
orchestras often lauded E-flat major for its full,
rich sound. It seems that all the instruments of
the orchestra were well suited to it. Consider
the violins on the word “est”: an open G string
19 Clyde Muropa, “The Johannine Writings: Symbolism and the Symbolof ‘Light’ in the Gospel of John,” The Asbury Journal 67, no. 2 (2012): 112,accessed April 22, 2014 http://place.asburyseminary.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1178&context=asburyjournal.
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(the instrument’s lowest note in standard tuning)
in the second violins and a first-finger E-flat
right next to the top nut would be very resonant—a
lush, enveloping sound perhaps too luxurious for
burial.
Choral works by Beethoven in E-flat major are
rare. The only one besides the “Et in carnatus
est” of which I am aware is the penultimate
movement of Christus am Ölberge. Beethoven’s
infrequent use of E-flat major could point to this
key being reserved for only the most special
occasions. The text from Christus am Ölberge is the
following:
Soldiers:
Quick, seize and bind this arrant traitor; Let’s here no longer stay. Death to the archimposter! Let’s drag him hence away.
Disciples:
O, how our Lord is hated, cruelly treated, dragged on high. We’ll now join him in his bondage, doomed to anguish, doomed to die.
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Jesus:
Now transgressors, see him wounded! My redemption work is done! Powers of Hell are now confounded and the fight will soon be won.20
Like in the mass, E-flat major is used here to
communicate faith, hope, and love in spite of extreme pain.
In conclusion, I would like to stand by an
interpretation that strengthens Beethoven’s expressing the
fulfillment of God’s will when he chose E-flat major to
close his “Et in carnatus est” from the Mass in C Major. It
would have been fully acceptable to cadence in another key,
especially after such harmonic instability in the middle
section. Venturing beyond expressing and depicting text at
the single-word level and inflexible, preformed definitions
of key centers can bring pieces more to life, and I hope to
have been successful at presenting spirited views. I allude
again to the always-relevant analogy of characters in a
dramatic production, and close this paper with an invitation
to the reader: do study and draw your own conclusions on the
20 Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Xaver Huber, Christus am Ölberge, translations via Barry Mitchell, Theory of Music (online), accessed April 23, 2014 http://theoryofmusic.wordpress.com/2010/11/05/german-and-english-texts-of-beethovens-christus-am-olberge/.
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