Responsory: Amicum querit pristinum/Amica crucis

The first responsory is significantly more elaborate than the Magnificat Antiphon, with long melismas (e.g., eighteen notes given to the first syllable of "antea" and "maior," respectively) and expanded ambitus of an eleventh (c' to f").

These features make it challenging to define the mode.The first responsory (the second responsory of the second nocturne of Matins), encompassing both the authentic and plagal ranges, is better understood in mode 5 than in mode 6 because of the emphasis on C as the reciting tone and the characteristic mode 5 opening gesture.