Compline Hymn for Holy Week and Triduum?
  • VilyanorVilyanor
    Posts: 388
    What is the proper hymn or hymn tune at Compline for Holy Week and the Triduum? Is it "Christe qui splendor" in the Mode 2 Lenten tune, during the week and then the tone for Solemnities starting on Holy Thursday?

    Many thanks!
  • smvanroodesmvanroode
    Posts: 998
    The Liber Hymnarius doesn't give a specific text or melody for Holy Week and the Triduum. I would use either Te lucis or Christe qui in the mode II tune for Lent for both Holy Week and the Triduum.
  • jefe
    Posts: 200
    Here eight of about 60 hymns I have for Compline that would fit Holy Week. I agree, mode II is best for the Triduum. Most of the rest are harmonized to some degree.
    jefe
    Te lucis ante terminum, To you before the close of day.jpg
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    Te lucis ante terminum Ad completorium quotidianum.jpg
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    O Christ, Our True and Only Light_Lent.jpg
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    Jesu dulcedo cordium.jpg
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    Compline I_Langguth.jpg
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    Compline II_Langguth.jpg
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    Compline Hymn variants, page three.jpg
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    Compline Hymn plainsong variants, p. 1.jpg
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    Christ,_mighty_Savior,_ATB_edited.jpg
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  • RevAMG
    Posts: 162
    Father Samuel Weber, OSB in his English-language Hymnal for the Hours seems to agree with @smvanroode, which makes sense since he follows the Liber Hymnarius quite closely. Te lucis or Christe qui in Mode II seems to be the best idea for Holy Week and the Triduum.
  • VilyanorVilyanor
    Posts: 388
    I'll likely stick to the II mode melody then, though I'm a little tempted to use the melody of Vexilla Regis, my favorite hymn. Many thanks, good people!
  • jefe
    Posts: 200
    Vily, here is one more, in mode II that rolled out of the cage:
    image
    O Christ, you are both light and day.jpg
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  • jchthys
    Posts: 23
    I know that this thread is old, but I wanted to say for the record:

    There is no hymn at Compline during the Triduum. Compline on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday is traditionally said in a low voice and is highly abbreviated. Where the hymn would be, "Christus factus est" is said instead.

    I believe that Compline is not said or sung publicly on Holy Saturday if the Easter Vigil is celebrated in the church that night.
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  • GerardH
    Posts: 461
    @jchthys I presume you're not talking of the Ordinary Form?
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,782
    @jchthys I presume you're not talking of the Ordinary Form?

    Or all of the vast number of usages and rites of the Catholic Church, other than the form known as the E.F. Divine Office.

    EDIT. I don't know the N.O. Office so can't comment, of course the EF has no Office hymn for compline in the Triduum and the Easter Octave. But historically I would not be surprised to find an Office Hymn for Compline in the Triduum.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,315
    I think he is talking of the Novus Ordo, actually. Certainly the rubrical part is correct, and it is true that there is no hymn in the Roman rite of Compline during the Triduum. The usage of Christus factus est has been squeezed in the Liturgia Horarum. I don't have an actual book in front of me, but it seems to me that people just choose a hymn to make up for this. Surely, however, Dom Lentini talks about this in his book on the hymns, and for as much as the new office has no real relationship to the old one, this is an interesting omission, because Lentini wasn't afraid to make changes, to the point where he is the single most-represented author, moving around hymns as he pleased, even to places where they were never sung historically.

    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • smvanroodesmvanroode
    Posts: 998
    Certainly the rubrical part is correct, and it is true that there is no hymn in the Roman rite of Compline during the Triduum.

    I tend to disagree. Looking at Liturgia Horarum (volume 2, p. 834), it gives the hymn Te lucis for weeks I, III and V of Lent, and “eodem tempore, per ceteras hebdomadas: Christe, qui” (but the OCO has Te lucis, LH 51).

    There's no mention that the hymn, which is an integral part of the ordinarium, is to be skipped during the Triduum, nor in Liturgia Horarum, nor in the Institutio generalis de Liturgia Horarum (cf. n.87), nor in the Liber Hymnarius, nor in the Ordo cantus officii.

    If someone knows of a rubric that says otherwise, I'm very interested!
    Thanked by 2tomjaw drforjc
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,471
    Looking at Universalis, I find Christe qui on all three days.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,315
    Horror of horrors, a book written by a committee in two and a half years has a startling omission.

    Less sarcastically, note that I didn't say that the LH actually drops the hymn, but its failure to specify one when it breaks from the Roman custom in virtually every way imaginable is not a small omission.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
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