Divine Office UK/Aus/NZ English Version

hartleymartin

I'm preparing a Sunday Vespers resource to go with the UK/Aus/NZ English Edition of the Divine Office. My plan was to set the English Psalter to the prescribed psalm tones of the Latin Divine Office, and possibly set the English antiphon texts to melodies closely resembling the Latin originals. I play evening masses in a parish run by monastic priests and they've expressed a desire to hold a public vespers on Sundays.

Someone has made a bit of a blunder in making this English translation as in the Latin edition there are two identical antiphons which have been rendered with different translations in this book.

Sunday Week 1 - II Vespers Ant. 3: The Lord is King, our God, the Almighty! Alleluia.
Sunday Week 3 - II Vespers Ant. 3: The Lord our God almighty is king, alleluia.

The Latin for both: Regnavit Dominus Deus noster omnipotens, alleluia.

Literal translation: The Lord, our God almighty reigned, alleluia. (note perfect tense of the verb)

Whilst I do not doubt that the approved translation is actually a better (even if not a literal) one, I wish that they could at least be consistent in using the same translation for the same antiphon when it appears again in the psalter!

I'm also slightly annoyed that the Antiphonal Romanum that I purchased off Lulu.com doesn't provide the Benedictus or Magnificat antiphons.

Anyone have an index of the Latin Benedictus and Magnificat Antiphons?

Attached is some of my preliminary work on creating a booklet for Sunday Vespers - I've typed out the English Antiphons, noted the psalms and the psalm tones allocated in the Antiphonale Romanum as well as put the chant notation for the psalm tones on top.

bonniebede

This is wonderful work, it will work for Ireland too, we use the same translation.
Can I help?
If someone had the latin antiphons and music on line, could we have a look at how the English words could fit.
I've been trying to do this too, but so far have only got to trying to work out what books the OC is directing me to for the antiphons, and where I might get them.
We HAVE TO improve the resources for parishes.
Thanks for this work so far.

smvanroode

Someone has made a bit of a blunder in making this English translation as in the Latin edition there are two identical antiphons which have been rendered with different translations in this book.

Sigh. I encountered the same problem with setting the Dutch translation to music:
Sunday Week 1 - I Vespers Ant. 3: De Heer Jezus heeft zich vernederd, daarom heeft God Hem hoog verheven voor altijd.
Sunday Week 3 - I Vespers Ant. 3: De Heer Jezus heeft zich vernederd; daarom heeft God Hem voor altijd hoog verheven.

In cases like this (there are plenty more in the Dutch lectionary), I only set one of the translations to music.

I'm also slightly annoyed that the Antiphonal Romanum that I purchased off Lulu.com doesn't provide the Benedictus or Magnificat antiphons.

Stick with the official 2009 Antiphonale Romanum. The one you bought on Lulu.com is only a proposal of years before the AR came out.

Anyone have an index of the Latin Benedictus and Magnificat Antiphons?

See the 1983 Ordo cantus Officii. It has been revised, however, and the emendations and additions have not yet been made public. The 2009 AR has been compiled using this new OCO. An overview of the differences between the OCO and AR (and Les Heures Grégoriennes) can be seen in this spreadsheet. It's not yet complete.

hartleymartin

BAH! Revised Liturgy.

The Parish where I play for evening masses was hoping that I could put together an order of sung vespers to cover the 4-week cycle. It was to be vespers only, although, compline only goes through a 1-week cycle so I was going to include those.

I'll welcome any help.

At the moment I'm wondering about if there is anything that I should do to simplify the cycle of music. Since the Canticle for Sunday I Vespers is the same, I feel that this should be the same psalm tone to make it more easy for people to familiarise themselves with. But by the same token then the same should happen for the first psalm and the canticle for Sunday II Vespers.

hartleymartin

Any suggestions on how to set the Canticle from Revelations to music? Should the verses be sung by the choir/cantor and the Alleluias sung by the whole congregation?

Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, *
Alleluia
His judgements are true and just.
Alleluia, alleluia.

Alleluia
Praise our God, all you his servants, *
Alleluia
You who fear him, small and great.
Alleluia, alleluia

Alleluia
The Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns, *
Alleluia
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory,
Alleluia, alleluia.

Alleluia
The marriage of the Lamb has come, *
Alleluia
And his bride has made herself ready.
Alleluia, alleluia.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son *
and to the Holy Spirit

as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be *
world without end. Amen

CHGiffen

Should the verses be sung by the choir/cantor and the Alleluias sung by the whole congregation?

That would seem to be a good solution, since having the congregation try to negotiate the verses might produce less than satisfactory results.

Ben

That's how the Mundelein psalter suggests.

smvanroode

This is indeed how we sing the canticle at vespers. The melody we use is taken from the Antiphonale Romanum which is quite simple for the choir or cantor to sing and for the congregation to respond to.

Your English text would then be (yes, with ‘alleluia’ after the doxology as well):

Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, alleluia,
His judgements are true and just. Alleluia, alleluia.

Praise our God, all you his servants, alleluia,
You who fear him, small and great. Alleluia, alleluia,

The Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns, alleluia,
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory. Alleluia, alleluia.

The marriage of the Lamb has come, alleluia,
And his bride has made herself ready. Alleluia, alleluia.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, alleluia,
and to the Holy Spirit. Alleluia, alleluia.

as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, alleluia,
world without end. Amen. Alleluia, alleluia.

hartleymartin

Never seen the Mundelein Psalter.

Palestrina

Looking at what the Dutch and German editors did is a good idea: gives some clear indications of how musicians have dealt with languages that have similar accent structures to English.

Ruff's article on using the Latin psalm tones for English texts is also illuminating.

hartleymartin

Some Psalm tones work better with English than others. It's mostly to do with the way that light and heavy accents fall on the vowels.

My aim is, essentially, to provide a setting of Sunday Vespers for use in parishes that pays suitable respect to Latin Gregorian Chant patrimony but at the same time is simple enough that amateur singers can pick it up and run with it. To that end, I think I'll provide two options for the antiphons, where a melody based on the Gregorian melody is provided, but also setting the antiphon to the psalm tone is there. I suppose an organ accompaniment also wouldn't go astray.

At the moment, the major difficulty is providing the Magnificat Antiphons. I'm thinking of dividing up the liturgical year along the lines of:

Vol 1. Advent, Christmas, Ordinary time 1-10
Vol 2. Lent, Easter, Ascension, Trinity, Pentecost, Corpus Christi
Vol 3. Ordinary Time 8-32, Christus Rex.

I don't imagine that each booklet will be very big, as it only contains the psalter for Sunday Vepers I and Vespers II, but it's one of those things that will undoubtedly grow in size. I want to avoid having to print a separate leaflet for every Sunday of the year.

SrEleanor

For the Magnificat antiphons, if you're scrupulous about using the UK/Ireland/Australia translation, you might consider contacting the Panel of Monastic Musicians, based in the UK. Several monasteries have collections of antiphons in the vernacular, and the Sunday Magnificat antiphons would be the same as the LOTH. The PMM website is http://www.monasticmusicians.org ; I don't know who the current secretary is but s/he might be able to point you to a monastery willing to share. (My own community in Ireland has a set of antiphons, but I don't think the copyright belongs to us, I'll have to look into it. That will take a little time, as I'm not in Ireland right at the moment).

You might also take a look at the antiphons composed by the late Fr Chrysogonus Waddell ocso, which the Dominican nuns have recently shared.
http://www.dominicannuns.org/antiphonary.html
@nun_34 posted about ithttp://forum.musicasacra.com/forum/discussion/10756/organ-accompaniment-for-office-antiphons#Item_3.
It is the US translation. What's posted is the full organ version, so you'd have to extrapolate the melody line for congregational booklets, but that's not so hard.

There's a version of the Sunday Vespers canticle in "Alleluia! Amen!" in a Byzantine style; the congregation sings the Alleluia antiphon and responses, a schola (or cantor) sings the verses. It works well.

hartleymartin

I actually have a collection published by Stanbrook Abbey, but I don't know how close it is to the original Gregorian Melodies.

hartleymartin

Here's a rough type-set of the Sunday II Vespers Canticle as found in weeks 1 and 3 of the psalter. I've set it to tone 1.f as found in the Antiphonale that I had purchased, and the antiphon is set to a melody closely based on the Latin one. I'm sure that some chant experts will help me to improve the antiphons, but I gather that it is ROUGHLY how this canticle is meant to be set to music?

I suppose one advantage here is that if the Alleluias are chanted as part of the psalm tone, that the psalm verses are all on the reciting note, making this one particularly easy to pick up for a chanting congregation.

hartleymartin

Attached is my draft of the Antiphons and Psalms for Sunday First Vespers Week 1. The type-setting still needs a little cleaning up, and I would appreciate any feedback on the antiphons. I've tried to closely match them up to the Gregorian melodies, modifying them to suit the English text.

smvanroode

I've tried to closely match them up to the Gregorian melodies.

It's a good start, but I think you're sticking too close to the Gregorian melodies. Try to use a less melismatic line, and especially avoid neumes on syllables (like 'the') that don't deserve much emphasis.

Here's my attempt at the third antiphon and canticle. The tone of the canticle is taken from the 2009 Antiphonale Romanum, page 40, which goes with mode I.

hartleymartin

I agree with you that I need to simplify the antiphons a bit.

hartleymartin

I know I'm digging up an old thread, but is there any sheet which show the canticle tones? I know the psalm tones, but it seems that canticles were sung differently and I would like the music for them.

I have Tone I (as above) but I would need Tone VI to do the other canticles for Sunday Vespers.

CHGiffen

You are just using the Psalm If, as found in the LU, pp113-117. See also the section on Vesper Psalms Grouped in Tones, pp128-207, and Magnificat, pp207-218, for applications of these tones. Tone VI is particularly simple, as it has only one termination formula.

Note that you can simply download the CMAA single page Psalm tone sheet of Office Psalm Tones, instead of paging through the LU.

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