This is really great, thanks! We are in a position where we can't purchase enough Antiphonali (plural?) for our choir and the few in the congregation who would like to follow along, so the Kleingraduale would be a great option... except for one thing: the parish has choral Vespers scheduled on Thursdays. The Kleingraduale is a beautiful resource for Sunday Vespers, but there are no provisions for weekday Vespers. Do you happen to know of a free resource that would have the chants for the antiphons and responsory for weekday Vespers?

It is by no means inexpensive, but Les Heures Grégoriennes, published by the Communauté Saint-Martin, is really what you are looking for if you need weekday Vespers. The ARII won't help you there. Take a look at their website (in French).

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. We are still evaluating our options—maybe EF is the way to go as the resources there should be very easy to find (though one of the selling points of OF Vespers is that it's short; EF Vespers' length may prove unmanageable in our context).

EF Solemn Vespers with Benediction takes us just under 1 hour. The exact time depends on how long the psalms, hymn, and how long the celebrant takes to incense the Altar(s).

This may help...
http://gregorian-chant-hymns.com/publications/liturgy-of-hours.html

Unpopular opinion here, but I think that OF Vespers is incredibly beautiful and basically on par with EF Vespers in almost all respects. The New Testament Canticles are a beautiful and well-suited addition. Some people might turn their noses at such an "innovation", but hey, Pius V changed the Benedictus to the Magnificat at Vespers in 1500, so I think there's grounds for the change.

@Vilyanor: I know that Pius V exchanged the Psalm Miserere for De profundis at Lauds in the ferial Preces, but I have a hard time believing he exchanged Benedictus and Magnificat when every medieval breviary and antiphoner I consulted tell me they were in the same place as they are now. Where have you heard that?

Really, since the rubrics are so accommodating and the resources scarce

@rarty: GILH is an interesting mix of permissiveness and stringence. For example, there is no permission given anywhere to substitute “alius cantus aptus” for the hymn. The psalms may be interchanged, as I recall, however.

Really, OF Vespers can be done very beautifully. Look at a recent forum thread for how we’ve done them at Annunciation in Houston.

Really, OF Vespers can be done very beautifully.

Agreed—we do a few Solemn English OF Vespers every year to lovely effect. But I find Latin anything to be superior to English anything (excepting perhaps the outstanding canticle settings from the English tradition). There's something about Latin that elevates things. I think even an a cappella Latin OF Vespers with nothing but Gregorian Psalm tones will feel more dignified and authentically "Catholic" than any English OF Vespers.

According to the Office books used in the UK/Australia any suitable hymn may be sung. There are hymns given on a two-week cycle, but the appendices make it clear that they may be swapped around or substituted. The cycle of hymns is more a suggestion than anything else. Of course, the hymns given are only for Ordinary Time. One must consult the appendices for the hymns for the various liturgical seasons and any hymn listed may be used.

Generally speaking, the hymns are fairly generic praise or Trinity hymns for the most part. There is a separate section for compline night prayer which gives hymns more specific to end-of-the-day prayer.

Plus the ceremony was reduced. I don’t see that as a benefit.

Yes, but on what planet is the Office normally more than a cleric’s private devotion? It is only in recent years that the solemn sung Vespers (and other offices, such as Lauds or Compline) has become more accepted again, but only in niche parishes or places (it isn’t right but it’s reality). LOTH reinforced the ostensible problem.

Also, how many pray more than the 2 psalms of Sunday Vespers, of which only one rotates? I am thus unsure as to how the OF Office can expose one to more psalmody given it suffers from at least the same limits of celebration with a deficient psalter for the majority of the people using it.

There’s also no singing of the tonus peregrinus on a regular basis. That dates back to the time of the Lord, and it is the sound of Sunday Vespers. It makes me incredibly sad that it was cut.



On a related note, Sext takes 10 minutes sung recto tono in the older form. Imagine doing the LOTH Terce or Sext before Mass in the new form; you can still finish with the Angelus, but you’d have to move back the Rosary.

My problem is that no pre-Joannine diurnals (better: pre-1950) can be had without the Bea psalter. That’s worse than the new Vulgate IMHO.

(Before anyone takes a crack at my preference for an older form, I will note that the psalter is still Pius X, that more texts are prayed so it isn’t as if things are missing, and it’s only a real problem when the September Ember Days are shifted a week due to the 1960 calendar reforms.).

@Matthew Ross.

In the LOTH, the Tonus Peregrinus comes up once per 4-week cycle, on Sunday of Week II, for Psalm 113B, in Ordinary Time, as per AR II. In addition in LHG it comes up in the Commons here and there. Sunday Vespers in the LOTH is more or less Monastic Vespers spread over 4 weeks with a canticle added. The only missing Sunday psalm from Monastic Vespers is 112 which in any event turns up at 1st Vespers.

I like to look at the glass as half-full, and the LOTH with the new Gregorian chant books has been looking better and better to me every day.

For those who want a fuller post-Vatican II experience, there's always one of the licit monastic variants:

Schema A, the original Benedictine schema with the option of retaining Prime or redistributing its psalms;

Schema B, as used in our abbey, all 150 psalms (no censorship!) in a week

Schemas C and D, two different two-weeks psalters.

Personally the ability to chant the LOTH has been a huge gift for me. I pray the entire daytime hours in Gregorian chant, in Latin. I do Vigils/Office of Readings recto-tono in French by anticipation the previous evening. When I have time, I do Terce and None too using the (very traditional in the monastic tradition) Gradual psalms. As an active retiree, the flexibility of this office has been a godsend to me. A handful of fellow oblates do as I do as well. I also know more and more of the laity praying the LOTH though few chant it.

I find your comment about Terce and Sext odd. The Monastic psalter always had the same psalms as the LOTH for Terce and Sext from Tuesday to Saturday, and often abbeys pray those hours just before Mass.

In fact in many ways the LOTH owes at least as much to the 1500 y.o. monastic tradition (using some of the licit options) than the 116 y.o. psalter of Pius X, excluding of course the spreading of the psalter over 4 weeks. Is it a perfect Office? Not by any means (I for one don't like the NT canticle at Vespers because they don't flow nicely when like the psalms when chanted, they are only "canticles" because someone said they are, not because they really are!), but they all have their shortcomings for actual daily use by a Oblate or any other layperson.

Ora

I pray the entire daytime hours in Gregorian chant, in Latin.

Sounds awesome—what book(s) do you use? I wish I had time for such an endeavor!

I didn’t say it was. The point is that for all intents and purposes it is prayed privately by a select few. It’s about the attitude fostered, not about the reality that it is a part of the public worship of the church which ought to be offered solemnly as often as possible.

I understand that the London Oratory has always substituted the Magnificat antiphons and has historically retained the 1967 ritual, but they use the older psalter. Other Oratories and churches do straight 1962.

Even if Sung Vespers is harder on ferial days according to the older form, I stil think it is easier than the newer form, given that the OCO is newly revised and the AR has been taking years to complete.

Yes, I’ve not made it to Vespers, only repeating what I’ve heard. But I agree: more places seem to do the older Latin office than the newer. St. Agnes in St. Paul MN is historically known for the traditional choral ordinaries and celebrating the Pauline Mass in the spirit of continuity, but they do the office according to the L.U. That tells me something about the LOTH.

@ CorAnglais16:

I use Les Heures Grégoriennes mainly, but also Antiphonale Romanum II (published by Solesmes in 2010), the latter mainly because it has a broader selection of Gospel Canticle antiphons on Sundays. LHG repeats the same antiphon at I and II Vespers and Lauds. AR II has a different one at I Vespers, which in the monastic cursus is also the same one used at Lauds.

There are now at least 3 oblates of our monastery using LHG and AR II to sing the LOTH daily (privately). We're spread out geographically but it would be fun to get together from time to time.

It's really not that time consuming; I managed it easily when still working (retired now), but it's much easier with the LOTH than the EF or Monastic schemas! I get most of the psalms in 4 weeks (except those omitted or seasonal), whereas with the monastic (and it would be the same for me with the EF), there would be psalms I would *always* miss week after week because of Offices that interfered with my work schedule.

@MatthewRoss

OK, once a month. That’s still depressing to me.

That's more than it ever appeared in the Monastic Office. The Tonus Peregrinus wasn't used on Sundays of Monastic Vespers. And that's a 1500 y.o. tradition that pre-dates Trent by some 1000 years. In the monastic world, Ps. 113 which used that tone, showed up on Monday, not Sunday.