EF Divine Office question - Tones for the Deus in adjutorium & versicles
  • JonathanKKJonathanKK
    Posts: 542
    For the Deus in adjutorium, the Liber Usualis (1961) has on p. 112:

    1. Tonus festivus ... adhibetur ad Matutinum, Laudes et Vesperas; et ad Tertiam ante Missam Pontificalem.

    2. Tonus simplex ... servatur ad Primam, Tertiam, Sextam, Nonam et Completorium.

    3. Tonus solemnior ... adhiberi potest ad libitum in Vesperis Festorum quae cum majori solemnitate celebrantur.


    The same three tones in the Antiphonale Romanum (1912/1949) are rubric'd as follows on p. 1*:

    Tonus festivus - Hoc tono utendum est in Duplicibus, Semiduplicibus et Dominicis ad Matutinum, Laudes et Vesperas : et ad Tertiam ante Missam Pontificalem.

    Tonus ferialis - Hoc tono utendum est supradictis diebus ad Primam, Tertiam, Sextam, Nonam, et Completorium ; et in Festis Simplicibus et Feriis ad omnes Horas.

    Tonus solemnis - Adhiberi potest ad libitum in Vesperis Festorum quae cum majori solemnitate celebrantur.


    Question:

    Which of these is the correct assessment of these rubrics:

    A. They are contemporary, and in harmony with each other.

    B. They are contemporary, and in disagreement with each other.

    C. They are from different times, such that one supplants the other.

    D. None of the above. (Just in case I have missed something)

    Please give your reasons.

    Extra credit: Consider also the rubrics for the different tones for the versicles as they are given in LU versus AR.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,315
    The only disagreement would be that the LU of 1961 permits the festive tone at the major hours and Matins of any day. The AR rubric prescribed instead the ferial tone for those hours on simple feasts (collapsed into semidoubles by Pius XII) and on ferial days, as seen in the second rubric, plus the day hours and Compline as usual.

    The rubric for the tonus solemnior in the LU is identical to that of the AR.

    I would say the AR is more authoritative as an official chant book, but that is countered by the fact that the 1961 LU is trying to catch up to the reforms of Pius XII and anticipate those of John XIII. If you look at the scan on the CMAA site, you see the old rankings but with simplified rubrics, such as limited commemorations, which has the effect of making some parts of all days equal. The LU isn’t official, but it doesn’t in itself mean the rubrics present are wrong for the year of publication as may be the case here.
    Thanked by 1JonathanKK
  • JonathanKKJonathanKK
    Posts: 542
    So I had thought, which is to say, C.

    However, check out the rubric in this bit of a 1920 Liber (p. 32 of the .pdf file).

    It's in French, but has exactly the same difference from AR.

    Thus, this would seem to be B. due to the overlap e.g. with the Antiphonale 1949.

    However, consider that the concept of the Liber Usualis was to be an anthology providing music for Sundays and (more important) Feasts.

    E.g. in terms of Vespers, the Liber was never set up to be used on ferias, and probably not simple feasts either: they were too low in rank and not within the scope of the book.

    Because of this, it is possible to hold A., which is to say, that since the Liber was not going to provide the means to sing vespers on ferias or simple feasts, it therefore cut out the parts of the AR rubric which were only relevant to these days.

    What had been preventing me from reaching this conclusion before was, besides that the Liber has such an aura of definitiveness, the fact that it does actually contain an example of ferial vespers on p. 517, for possible use on a Monday and Tuesday of Forty Hours.

    However, I am starting to think (without having the hard evidence yet) that the rubric for the Deus in adjutorium must predate the inclusion of these, and does not take them into account.

    Does this sound like a better solution?

    To me it jives with the picture of the Liber as 1) an anthology, limited in scope, and 2) a work which has been through a number of updates but without having been re-done, thus containing new insertions alongside with bits left over from the past.













  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,315
    I would follow the A.R. anyways… I wonder if communities such as the ICRSS seminary at Gricigliano sing Vespers recto tono from the Diurnale Romanum on ferial days.
  • JonathanKKJonathanKK
    Posts: 542
    Why recto tono on ferial days?
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