sheet music for breviary hymns?

Stella611

Source of sheet music for hymns of the Divine Office, pre-1965?

I am wondering if anyone knows where I can find the chant sheet music for all the divine office hymns, as mentioned in the resource "Hymns of the Roman Liturgy", by Joseph Connelly.
Examples of hymns they mention that I don't have music for:

- En clara vox redarguit (Advent)
- A solis ortus cardine (Christmas)
- O sola magnarum urbium (Epiphany, Lauds)
- O lux beata caelitum (Holy Family, vespers)
- O gente felix hospita (Holy Family, lauds)
- Sacra jam splendent (Holy Family, matins)

That's just a start. I would be interested in finding music for others in this book listed for Lent and Easter seasons also.

MatthewRoth

Liber Usualis or Antiphonale Romanum. For PDFs of just the hymns, try Gregobase, which lists the source of the chant in an official liturgical book.

chonak

For organ scores, see the "Nova Organi Harmonia" collection, which includes all the hymns and Mass chants in the Liber Usualis. The NOH is in the "library" site at ccwatershed.org . However, be aware that those scores do not follow Solesmes-style rhythmic interpretation, so you may wish to add rhythmic markings to make them agree with your chant practice.

tomjaw

The Antiphonale Romanum 1960 newly scanned and on Musica Sacra will have most of the Vespers and Lauds Hymns, the older version 1912 also online will have any missing.

The Matins are rather more difficult, some are here but usually the older words,
https://societyofstbede.wordpress.com

I could dig out versions with the newer words if needed.

JonathanKK

There is a book Hymni de Tempore et de Sanctis (1885) which is Solesmes, but pre-Vatican Edition.

There is also a very obscure Liber Nocturnalis (1930), which someone posted here on the forum.

The Antiphonale Romanum is of course the definitive source for the hymns of the day hours. For Matins, I would consult the two linked above in conjunction with the AR, as the tunes they give may not match the AR exactly, in which case I would go with the AR.

However, I would think that they give a good indicator of what the tune a given hymn should be; the little data that I have gathered from looking at these books is that the Matins hymns "borrow" melodies from the hymns of the day hours in at least some instances.

frkormos

Here are a few:

O lux beata caelitum: https://gregobase.selapa.net/chant.php?id=4253 (Liber Hymnarius, Solesmes, 1983, p. 26)

O sola magnarum orbium: https://gregobase.selapa.net/chant.php?id=2999 (Liber Usualis, Solesmes, 1961, p. 456)

O gente felix hospita: https://gregobase.selapa.net/chant.php?id=4913 (Antiphonarium O.P. (Gillet), Dominican, 1933, p. 381)

A solis ortus cardine: https://gregobase.selapa.net/chant.php?id=2628 (Liber Usualis, Solesmes, 1961, p. 400)

Sacra jam splendent is a 11.11.11.5 melody, which fits quite a few others (Ecce Jam Noctis, or Christe, sanctorum decus Angelorum).

jgirod

For use in the OF, the official book in Latin is Liber Hymnarium (Solesmes 1983). The text is that of Liturgia Horarum, that is, not the reformed text from Urban VIII as in the Roman EF but not quite the traditional text either as in the Antiphonale Monasticum. The musical setting usually remains the same as in the latter.

OraLabora

The Matins are rather more difficult, some are here but usually the older words

The Liber Responsorialis from Solesmes, 1895, should have many if not most of the matins hymns for class 1 feasts. There is a nice hard-cover reprint put out by Sarto Verlag in Germany.

http://www.sarto.de/product_info.php?info=p121_Liber-Responsorialis.html

I have a copy, very handy even for the new 1970 Liturgy of the Hours as many of the antiphons specified by the Ordo Cantus Officii for the Office of Readings comes from it.

You might also be able to find used copies here and there, I know the local abbey sold off a bunch a couple of years

Ora

Cecilia27

I'm looking for sheet music for Rex sempiterne caelitum (Matins for Easter), pre-1965 (with changes of Pope Urban VIII).

JonathanKK

This chant definitely does not exist in any of the "Vatican Edition" books, as these never got around to covering more than a couple instances of Matins. Matins of Easter Day, which does exist in a "Vatican Edition", unfortunately does not include this hymn.

Thus, there is nothing that would have been that level of "official" in 1962.

The Nocturnale Romanum (2002) would have it, but that is edited with a slightly different perspective, being a recent book.

Then, you might find it somewhere accidentally included in some random obscure Solesmes book, but that wouldn't be official either.

If I were preparing an edition of a Matins that needed to include this hymn, what I might start with is take the text from p. 46 of the 1885 Hymni de tempore et de Sanctis that I have linked above (or whatever Breviary or authentic source you prefer), and then based on this book's judgment take the melody from p. 458 and / or p. 459 of the Antiphonale Romanum 1949.

This is along the same lines as what the Liber does to provide Matins that do not exist in the Vatican Edition; it takes the Venite exsultemus, antiphons, and responsories "from the publications of Solesmes" (meaning e.g. its pre-Vatican Edition books from the 1890's), and then plugs in the appropriate melodies from the Vatican Edition for the rest: the common tones, the hymn, the Te Deum, etc.

tomjaw

https://gregobase.selapa.net/source.php?id=23&images=1&index=2 page LXII

tomjaw

Have just looked in the Vatican Nocturnale 1930 (it is hand written) They have the text as Rex aeternae Domine, ... and use a different melody...

frkormos · Screen Shot 2017-12-02 at 22.41.09.png

If you are content with a simpler Sarum Rite melody, then there is the one below from Walter Frere's "Hymn-Melodies and Sequences" (No 61).

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