Ring in the new year with Christ!

And His mother, too, I should add!

Hugh Henry has made available a booklet for Vespers of New Year's Eve (1st Vespers for the Octave of the Nativity according to the extraordinary form) ending with Benediction and the singing of Laudes Regiae (Christus Vincit). But coolest of all is the recording of Christus Vincit by Juventutem. The strength and energy of this hymn in praise of Christ Our Lord and King blew me away! Have a listen, and then sing along.

Christus vincit. Christus regnat. Christus imperat. Exaudi Christe.
Christ is victor, Christ is ruler, Christ is Emperor. O hear our prayer, Christ.

Vespers Update - Assumption of the BVM

You can now access the chanted Sunday Vespers booklets for Ordinary Time and Advent in the "Liturgy of the Hours" links list at the left. These booklets include all the prayers for II Vespers on Sundays except the proper Magnificat antiphons and concluding prayers (too much to type). I also include in each booklet at the end the traditional Marian anthem usually sung after Night Prayer - Alma Redemptoris Mater, Ave Regina Caelorum, Regina Caeli, or Salve Regina.

I'm still working on getting this prayer started in my parish, but that hasn't stopped me from putting together a booklet for the upcoming Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary! Feasts are missing from my other booklets, so I figured I'd arrange them individually as I go for future use. Here is my chanted Assumption booklet for II Vespers. Summer is great. :)

Happy praying!

O God, come to my assistance - Sunday Vespers

Perhaps I mentioned at some point my ongoing project to set a simply chanted Sunday Vespers to sing weekly at my parish? I went about typing the texts and setting music in the hopes that the more I had done before pitching it to our pastor and choir director the more likely it'd be to get started. I stalled for a while, stuck on the strange canticle from Revelation. But thanks to a tip from this discussion on the Musica Sacra forums, I was able to move ahead and finish the main part of the project (minus readings and propers for Advent, Lent and Easter).

Here is the result presented for review: (See edited links at bottom).

If you are so inclined, could you offer feedback? Specifically regarding the pointing of the antiphons and psalms:

1) Are any of the chant tones really ugly or awkward?

2) I used the simple method employed by the editors of the Mundelein Psalter. The italic syllable is where you first change pitch. Each note after the change corresponds to one syllable with any extras falling on the last note. And also the final note should correspond to the final accented syllable in the phrase. I had some difficulties following this last rule with the antiphons for Psalm 110. Making the final syllable line up with the last note over-emphasized an insignificant word or awkward syllable.

3) I originally wanted to keep the "official" text for everything. For the Magnificat (Canticle of Mary) the traditional tone I used works poorly. I have a better arrangement from The Hymnal (1940) but it uses King James English. It's beautiful, but not "official." I'm leaning toward using the different translation unless someone can offer a way to fix my version.

As a beneficial aside, I also set the English translations of two traditional hymns from the Divine Office in square notes. They look nice and are wonderful to sing. Feel free to use and distribute these as you like (all text and music is common domain):

Lucis Creator optime - Sunday, II Vespers, odd weeks
O Lux, beata Trinitas - Sunday, II Vespers, even weeks

Head over to my friend Geometricus' blog Hymnos Debitos Canamus for helpful info about these and many other hymns of the Divine Office!

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EDIT: Here are the updated booklets in PDF files, the first combined, one for Ordinary Time and one for Advent:
COMBINED - This booklet has multiple antiphons for each psalm depending upon the season. I moved away from this, thinking instead to have different booklets for different seasons.
ORDINARY TIME - Simplified layout with only the OT antiphons for each psalm.
ADVENT - Psalms have antiphons for advent only. Hymns are english translations of the the proper Advent hymns from Liturgiam Horarum, Conditor alme siderum and Verbum salutis omnium, set to a tune from the Liber Usualis. I also selected a different chant tone for the Advent Responsory and Magnificat.

They are set in half-sheet size (5.5"x8.5") for printing as a booklet on 8.5"x11" letter paper. I decided to just use the latin Magnificat. The booklets have everything you need to pray Sunday II Vespers for Ordinary Time and Advent except the Magnificat antiphons and final prayer. It seemed too much work to try and type and included these in a section that you'd have to flip to anyways. I plan to just look them up from another psalter when praying.

Vespers, Wednesday of the Fourth week of Easter

With Pope Benedict XVI from the Crypt Church at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception! A beautiful vespers. I like how all the bishops could sing along without much help from their prayer book whenever the traditional latin chant was used (Deus in audiutorium meum, Magnificat, Pater noster). What a lovely expression of the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church.

I'm still working on my simple setting of Sunday Vespers to propose singing at my parish on a regular basis. Mine is all simplified chant mostly in English similar to the Mundelein Psalter. Which, BTW, I highly recommend.

Veni, veni Emmanuel

Beginning tonight at vespers and continuing through December 23, the O antiphons ring out in the prayer of the Church. These 7 antiphons are the latin text upon which O Come, O Come Emmanuel is based. Writes Br. Pius Pietrzyk, OP at www.dominicanfriars.org:

With this portion of Advent come the great “O Antiphons”. In the Liturgical Office of Vespers (Evening Prayer), from December 17th until the 23rd, the Antiphon for the Gospel Canticle (the Magnificat) begins in Latin with the vocative “O” and a title of the Lord Jesus: O Sapientia, O Adonai, O Rex, O Clavis, O Oriens, O Radix, O Emmanuel. These translate into: O Wisdom, O Adonai, O King, O Key (of David), O Dawn, O Root (of Jesse), O Emmanuel.

You can download a copy of a short program of all of the chants together with the tone for singing the Magnificat:

Booklet of Dominican Chants of the “O” Antiphons

A very present help in trouble

In the wake of the bridge collapse this past week, I found comfort in the words of Psalm 46 from Friday Vespers:

1 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
3 though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult.

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved;
God will help her right early.
6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
he utters his voice, the earth melts.

7 The LORD of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.

8 Come, behold the works of the LORD,
how he has wrought desolations in the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear,
he burns the chariots with fire!
10 "Be still, and know that I am God.
I am exalted among the nations,
I am exalted in the earth!"

11 The LORD of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
(RSV)

Pope John Paul II commented on this psalm during his general audience of June 16, 2004:

Psalm 46 is divided into two major parts by a sort of antiphon that rings out in verses [7] and [11]: "The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge". God's title, "the Lord of hosts," is typical of the Hebraic cult in the Temple of Zion; despite its martial connotations, linked to the Ark of the Covenant, it refers to God's lordship over the whole cosmos and over history.

Hence, this title is a source of confidence, for the whole world and all its vicissitudes are under the supreme governance of the Lord. This Lord is therefore "with us", as the antiphon says once again with an implicit reference to the Emmanuel, the "God-with-us" (cf. Is 7: 14; Mt 1: 23).

The first part of the hymn focuses on the symbol of the waters and presents a twofold, contrasting meaning. Indeed, on the one hand, the foaming waters are unleashed; in biblical language this symbolizes devastation, chaos and evil. They cause the trembling of the structure of the being and of the universe, symbolized by the mountains shaken by the roaring outburst of some sort of destructive floodwaters. On the other hand, however, there are the thirst-quenching waters of Zion, a city set upon arid hills but which is gladdened by "a river and its streams." While he alludes to the streams of Jerusalem such as the Shiloah (cf. Is 8: 6-7), the Psalmist sees in them a sign of flourishing life in the Holy City, of its spiritual fecundity and its regenerative power.

Therefore, despite the upheavals of history that cause people to tremble and kingdoms to shake, the faithful find in Zion the peace and calm that derive from communion with God.

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In manus tuas Domine, commendo spiritum meum.
     -In manus tuas Domine, commendo spiritum meum.
Redemisti nos Domine, Deus veritatis.
     -Commendo spiritum meum.
Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.
     -In manus tuas Domine, commendo spiritum meum.