I have managed to secure support from my parish priest to have a solemn celebration of the Christmas Office of Readings before our Midnight Mass, with choir. For the most part I have found resources quite easily: - the Invitatory Antiphon and Psalm, and the Hymn I have found in the Liber Hymnarius - the three antiphons to the psalms and all responsories do exist in the Gregorian repertory (not always the case with the Liturgia Horarum!!!). I will be using the chants as they were used at the Vatican in 2011.
There is the option in the OF to extend and further solemnise nocturnal celebrations of the Office of Readings as a Vigil, with three Old Testament canticles and a Gospel. I thought this would be a good opportunity, since the parish won't be celebrating a Vigil Mass, so then the Gospel of the genealogy of Christ can still be heard. The canticles are all from Isaiah. An antiphon is sung before the first and at the conclusion of the last of these canticles. However, I haven't found a definitive source for this antiphon. - The LH text is "Vocábitur nomen eius Emmánuel, quod interpretátur «Nobíscum‑Deus»" which I don't believe has a chant - The 1983 OCO in Appendix 1 prescribes Multiplicabitur eius imperium Does anyone have access to the 2015 OCO to check if Multiplicabitur is still the prescribed antiphon?
Also, during the singing of the Te Deum, rubrics say to kneel at the verse "Te ergo quaesumus...". Do we continue to kneel until the end, or do we stand again for the following verse? And would the Te Deum be sung as a "Solemn Te Deum", with two thurifers and all facing the altar, or is a Solemn Te Deum only for outside of the Divine Office?
Any advice is most welcome. I'm getting far too excited about this haha.
For the Te Deum, only kneel for the one verse (Te ergo... redemisti.) then stand for remainder.
You can use any approved version of the Te Deum (aside from the Simple and Solemn tone there is a third tone available found in the Graduale).
I'm not sure of the rubrics for OF, but for EF, the hymn is sung with both sides of choir facing each other across the sanctuary. Again, in the EF there wouldn't be two thurifers for Matins. That would be reserved for an Eucharistic procession.
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