Tenebrae in the Usus Antiquor - How to abbreviate?
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,933
    Does someone have any experience with doing an abbreviated version of Tenebrae in the EF? I've seen a lot of collections that only do the first nocturne of Matins for each day; does that mean they just skipped the rest or only recited it?

    For myself and the small group of chant dudes interested in doing it (third year in a row- woohoo!) I was thinking of doing something along the lines of the following:

    1. Thursday Tenebrae, 1st nocturne fully chanted, 2nd/3rd nocturne recited, Lauds chanted
    2. Friday, 1st nocturne recited, 2nd nocturne chanted, 3rd nocturne recited, Lauds chanted
    3. Saturday, 1st/2nd nocturne recited, 3rd nocturne chanted, Lauds chanted

    And switch the pattern for the days next year and the year after that. (Huh. Tenebrae on a three-year cycle. I feel as though I've been inadvertently enriched by the OF.)

    But certainly the rest of you have experience with this sort of thing; what have YOU done?
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,980
    Abbreviate? Was it abbreviation in 19th century Russia? It was not! Is outrage! Less is more, but more is better.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,315
    I imagine parts would be sung recto tono.
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,933
    God bless and keep the Russian Orthodox Church . . . far away from our Tenebrae.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,980
    God bless and keep the Russian Orthodox Church . . . far away from our Tenebrae.


    I don't think you have anything to worry about, LOL. Those Russians are pretty clannish and not open to change.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Tenebrae in the Usus Antiquor - How to abbreviate?


    Tene. in Us. Ant.
    Thanked by 6Spriggo StimsonInRehab CharlesW Chris Hebard SrEleanor eft94530
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,933

    Adam, some days you can be a real asset - and I mean the abbreviated version of that last word. :P
    Thanked by 2Adam Wood eft94530
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,782
    The London Oratory sings the Antiphons for the first nocturne recto tono, they also sing the responsories between the Lamentations recto tono... Of course the other nocturnes have polyphonic responsories...

    When we have been short of singers we also have used recto tono, for most of Matins. It certainly saves lots of time...
    Thanked by 1StimsonInRehab
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