There are lots. If you search you can find full programs available. We used to do it but lately haven't because we've had a hard time sandwiching it into a good parish time.

The Council had nothing to say about the practice, certainly not to suppress it.

I certainly see no reason not to celebrate it as a para-liturgy. If Wednesday evening is the preferred time, I've often thought that the 3 Tenebrae services should be kept in tact, and rotated along with the 3-cycle.

At St Stephen's we are bound by the provisions set forth in the motu proprio regarding the traditional Mass and Office, and are bound by the 1962 missal, and therefore the 1955 "restored" Holy Week (see the fantastic articles now on NLM by Gregory Di Pippo about this "resoration"), and therefore are bound to morning celebrations of Tenebrae. Some countries in 1955 petitioned the Holy See in 1955 to be able to celebrate one of the Tenebrae services at night (Australia, for example) and this was granted, however, the US never received this permission.

You can find an entire program for the Tenebrae of Saturday, in Gregorian Chant, fully notated, here, as sung in a church in Versailles, France (Ordinary Form, sorry for those who would like the EF).

We are doing the entire ancient office of Tenebrae for Good Friday, starting one hour before sunrise.

This will be straight from old Office, with only two changes: we have omitted about a dozen verses from Ps. 21, and we have shortened two of St. Augustine's readings slightly. The old rubrics (so beautifully austere) will apply.

It takes about two hours to sing, but we are dividing the schola in two and sharing the responsibilities so we can rest our voices at regular intervals. This kind of division has other advantages, chief among them that it reduces the number of responsories a singer has to learn. We also will sing psalm verses in alternatim. The Lamentations will be sung by individual singers.

This has been a great learning experience for us. I think the chief logistical lesson is that these major offices pretty much require distributed singing.

Pray that it all goes well tomorrow morning.

RUBRICAL NOTES

As a combination of Matins and Lauds, ‘Tenebrae’ occurs one hour before dawn and typically lasts two hours.

The setting is austere: the altar is bare, the statuary veiled. A candelabra with fifteen candles is placed on the altar. Two candlesticks, which remain lighted during the entire office, are placed alongside a central lectern.

The schola, in cassock or choir dress, processes in silence, reverences the altar, and takes seats to the side, facing each other. All remain standing until the first verse of the first psalm is intoned by a cantor. The people remain seated for the entire office, save for the Pater nosters and Benedictus, during which all stand.

One candle is extinguished at the conclusion of each psalm.

It seems advisable for the schola to stand for the Responsories. For them, the singers move to the central lectern, reverence the altar, and turn to face the people. Afterwards, they turn to reverence the altar again and return to their places in choir. Cantors of the Lamentations and readers do the same.

After the Benedictus, the last remaining candle (still lighted) is hidden behind the altar.

All stand and immediately kneel during the Christus factus est until the priest or master of ceremonies completes the final prayer.

After the final prayer, a noise is made, and the last remaining candle is brought from behind the altar. All rise and retire in silence.

This is the translation of the Prayer, "Respice, quaesumus, Domine, super hand familiam tuam..." that is provided in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer:

"Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross ..."

A more literal translation would be:

Look, we ask, O Lord, upon this your family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ did not hesitate to be given into the hands of evil-doers and to undergo the torment of the cross.

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Must be a problem with my other computer running Windows. I try to upload PDFs, and the forum says it doesn't recognize the file type and demands an "rar" (a proprietary archiving) file. Bleh. It's probably a problem on my end. I just fixed this computer (on which I type this), which had been out of commission for a while -- and it has all my musica sacra files on it! Oy.

The Tenebrae went well, apart from my train wreck of a solo responsory verse. I am really fortunate to sing with this group of gents. Finally, a Good Friday that felt like a Good Friday.

Slightly off-topic (strictly speaking), but the Benedictines in Norcia have posted mp3s of Tenebrae on their website.

Pes wrote: "would members consider it an organic development of the liturgy to replace the word "Judaei" (in the responsory, Tenebrae factae sunt) with the word "homini"? Such a change would more fully reflect the Magisterium's teaching on that point."

I don't think an "organic development" justifies tinkering with the text of the Church's liturgy (see Sacrosanctum concilium, n. 22.3). However, if the Holy See were to authorize a change in text, I think the natural choice would be "milites" (soldiers); see Mt 27:27, 35; Mk 15:16, 24; Lk 23:33 [36]; and especially Jn 19:23 (“Milites ergo cum crucifixissent eum”). But notice that the point of St. Augustine's reading is that the hostile Jewish authorities and mob crucified Christ just as surely as the soldiers did. See also Jn 19:12, 15, 18 (“Judæi,” “pontifices,” “crucifixerunt eum”).