Litany of Loreto (Litany of the B.M.V.)

fvelasco

Our pastor, who studied at the International Seminary of St. Peter in Wigratzbad, Germany (FSSP), shared with our Schola this setting of the Litany of Loreto, which we'll use for our parish May crowning. The chant setting, which was transcribed and typeset from Father's original copy by a member of our Schola, differs from that in the Liber Usualis.

Is anyone familiar with this setting of the Litany?

JonathanKK

HERE is a snapshot from Cantus ad Processiones et Benedictiones SSMI Sacramenti (1948), published by Desclee. This version is somewhat different from the one which you give, but one is obviously a derivative of the other.

Notes:

Your version is extremely regular in the alternation between the four different phrases.

In the usual chant editions of the litanies, the invocations "Christe audi nos" and "Christe exaudi nos" would also be marked as being doubled at the beginning of any litany (e.g. this is still the case in the typical edition of the Missale Romanum of 1962). Your edition gives these invocations only once.

Also, by the way, your version does not have the invocation "Regína in caélum assúmpta", which according to Wikipedia was added to the litany in 1950 by Pope Pius XII.

You will find that this more recent invocation will be inserted after "Regína sine lábe origináli concépta", thus bringing the total number of invocations for this litany to forty-nine in the liturgical books of 1962.

(Which is an interesting issue with this litany in general: given that other invocations have been added since 1962, what are they, and where do they fit in? And have there been other alterations? Sometime I will have to get this straight for myself, just to have it in mind.)

Final note: in the version which I have posted, the melody for the Agnus Dei invocations at the end is taken from [or at any rate, is the same as in] the 5th of the somewhat standard set of six tones for this litany as found in e.g. the Processionale Monasticum. Oddly, the response melody is altered: probably to make it fit better.

fvelasco

Thank you, Jonathan, for this wealth of fascinating information!

I neglected to mention that Father requested some alterations to the original Litany, so you're correct that what I posted appears to be derived from the publication cited. Chris' unaltered transcription is still listed in the Gregobase and more closely matches that in the snapshot you provided. https://gregobase.selapa.net/chant.php?id=7856

fvelasco

Regarding the additional invocations, I found this from an interesting Website while researching the Litany of Loreto:

MODERN ADVOCATIONS
The 1587 version of the Litany of Loreto was subsequently enriched with new advocations.
1675 Queen of the most Holy Rosary (for the confraternities of the Holy Rosary)
1883 Queen Conceived without Original Sin (Leo XIII for the whole Church)
1903 Mother of Good Counsel (Leo XIII)
1917 Queen of Peace (Benedict XV)
1950 Queen Assumed into Heaven (Pius XII)
1980 Mother of the Church (John Paul II)
1995 Queen of Families (John Paul II)

https://udayton.edu/imri/mary/l/litany-of-loreto-in-context.php

Cantus67

This is the one that I love, both in it's origin and it's musical purity. We sang this at OLMC two years ago on the feast of OLMC July 16th. The editing was raised a 3rd so that my basses didn't get lost in the low notes.

http://youtu.be/wPjqKO78uVk

Chris Garton-Zavesky

Cantus,

Does Vittoria's original leave the word Christe unfinished in the lower 3 parts, and the word eleison utterly missing?

Richard Mix

To which lower 3 parts do you refer? ("Christe exaudi nos")

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