Psalm tones for gregorian communio
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    For the ad libitum chants, is there a way I can find which psalm tones they use?

    Ego sum vitis vea (VIII)
    Gustate et videte (III)
    Hoc corpus (VIII)
    Manducaverunt (I)
    Panem de caelo (V)
    Panis quem ego dedero (I)
    Qui manducat carnem meam (VI)

    The only real chant book I own is the PBC. No Liber, GR, any of that. The PBC does not have any information for the verses on these chants.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    The verses are spelled out in the 1974 Graduale, which I think you can download from Watershed. Here are a couple to get you started:

    Ego sum: Ps. 79*, 2ab. 9. 10. 11. 12. 16. 18. 19
    (The asterisk means that the antiphon is not drawn from Ps. 79, and it's OK to use Ps 33 instead. See Graduale, p. 12.)

    Gustate: Ps. 33, verses after V. 9
  • RomanticStringsRomanticStrings
    Posts: 337
    Frankly, I'm still confused about psalmody in general. The Gregorian Missal suggests trained cantors would sing the psalms with the chants, but gives no info about where to go to learn that. Is there a resource that gives the official method for psalm singing, rather than a resource that gives the psalms already set?
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    There is a good explanation (in Latin with simple examples) of how to set the psalm texts to the psalm-tone formulas for the eight modes, in the 1934 Antiphonale Monasticum (a free PDF download on musicasacra.com).
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    Sorry for any confusion Richard - I'm not looking for the particular psalms, but for the psalm tones used to sing them with these antiphons.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    Those are in the 1934 book also. For instance, for "Ego sum", p. 1218 has the 8th-mode psalm tone, with several optional endings. Choose one to make the verses lead back into the antiphon.
    Thanked by 1ryand
  • RomanticStringsRomanticStrings
    Posts: 337
    If an antiphon does not assign a psalm (in the Graduale), does it take the psalm it comes from (if it comes from one)?
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,151
    The Psalm tones for the Gregorian Communio are the same as the Gloria Patri tones for the Versicle "Gloria Patri" at the Introit. These are available from the MusicaSacra Communio page here (transcribed, I believe, by Richard Rice). They are also in the Liber Usualis 1961, pp. 14-16.
    Thanked by 1ryand
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    Charles, I think we're talking about the OF context in this thread (about 'ad libitum' antiphons). Is there a rule about the tones for the OF?

  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,151
    If these ad libitum Communio antiphons are going to be sung in Latin, even in the OF, then it would seem that the appropriate Psalm tones should be those associated with them from the EF equivalents.

    Thus, for example, the ad libitum "Gustate et Videte" is precisely the Communio for the 8th Sunday after Pentecost in the EF (in English, as "O Taste and See", it is the Communion antiphone for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time). While the rubrics don't specify the Psalm tone in the OF, I can't believe that it was envisioned that one would go out of ones way to use a different Psalm tone from the one specified for the EF equivalent.

    While my 3-part setting of "Gustate et Videte" is not the Gregorian chant, it is a 3-part canon, with a Mode III structure, and I included the Psalm verses, set in a harmonization of the proper Gregorian Mode III Psalm tone. Here is the Gustate et Videte, MzABar PDF score and Gustate et Videte, MzABar MP3 sound realization.
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    @CHGiffen thanks for sharing that. I am thinking of composing something like this (although not a canon) for these texts, which is why I was looking for the corresponding psalm tones. Beautiful canon. My composition sense tingles with envy.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    You can find the solemn tones fully notated in Richard Rice's work, at http://musicasacra.com/music/communio/ .
    Thanked by 2ryand CHGiffen
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