Thank you for these wonderful resources. For a while I have wanted to put together English chant versions of the the Little Office of the BVM and the Office of the Dead, but I don't have the talent to adapt the Latin antiphons to English. Thus I was quite excited to see your compositions. I have included your antiphons in booklets I made for these hours. (Sorry if my singing of them is not the best.)
@maestrodicapella Are there specific dates where you notice this error? I appreciate you pointing this out and I will upload corrected files ASAP
@vogelkw Thanks for sharing those links, and for your encouraging words. It is good to know that these compositions are proving useful, especially to clergy!
It is greatly appreciated that you have done this! Thank you.
I do have a couple of comments, I hope not to be too critical. The antiphons are done really well, but I am disappointed that you have no notation, only suggestions for the singing of the psalms themselves. I have been involved in directing music for the daily offices for over 12 years. I've used many of the resources out there. If I use a resource, I want it to be complete in itself, and to not have to create a FURTHER resource to be able to give something to the congregation. Also, the congregation, would have to have another book or another resource to know how to sing the body of the psalms, thus complicating the endeavor.
One of the great things about the Mundelien psalter was the fact that you could pick it up and sing every office of the year without needing another book or resource. Yes, the Gregorian melodies were not adopted, and so I am grateful that you have done this.
@ghmus7 Thanks for your thoughts. I am conflicted - half of me wants to have verses pointed to specific tones (for the reasons you mentioned), while the other half recognizes that musicians’ opinions about psalm tones outnumber the psalms themselves!
I ran a survey across several platforms to determine which presentation of the psalm verses (and their tones) would be most widely useful. What you see on the Gaudete Psalter site was the most popular (but certainly not unanimous) response.
Fr Vogel’s examples above show that it is possible to use these antiphons while pointing verses to a tone of your preference - although that certainly is a lot more work.
However: An advantage of this being a digital resource is that revisions are easy to distribute. Files can be deleted and replaced, while the location / site navigation remains the same. I’ve made many 2nd or 3rd draft uploads after noticing mistakes while singing the office myself.
Feedback like yours is most appreciated and may lead to future revisions. Keep the comments coming! :-)
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