This book does for Lauds what volume II does for Vespers. So now you can easily chant Lauds and Vespers on Sundays and feasts. With tracked shipping, it comes out to about $71 USD at current exchange rate.

Just ordered mine. Finally! I noticed in the description that all strophes of the hymns are noted. This will be great because that's not the case in Les Heures Grégoriennes that I normally use. I'm eager to see how the antiphons match up too, and if, unlike LHG, they propose a different antiphon for the Benedictus and the Magnificat. I think probably it will because Volume II for Vespers does between I and II Vespers and has as an option the antiphons for I Vespers that are associated with the reading from the Office of Readings.

I wrote to Solesmes a few years ago asking when it would be ready and they said "in the spring" (I had written to them in the fall). They weren't lying... except for the year!

Ora

LHG is wonderful, so easy to use and all in one book. The only complaint I have is too may hymns with only the first strophe noted. It’s not a problem for the simpler melodies of the férial Office, but for some like the feast of St Laurent at Lauds, and proper hymns for apostles and evangelists are not so simple. So for that alone it may be worth it if all strophes are noted.

Also I imagine this is now the « official » version. Since I prepare the booklets for our choristers when we chant an Office, I prefer using official sources. LHG does mostly follow the new Ordo Cantus Officii for the férial Office but not always for festive Offices or parts of seasons with proper antiphons. It tends to repeat the same antiphons at (first Vespers), Lauds and (second) Vespers.

I personally don’t mind the simplifications for solo use but if putting together an office that will be sung in public, I prefer an official version

Ora

There probably won't be. PDFs can be copied infinitely, and considering how penurious many church musicians are, a PDF would probably damage book sales significantly and therefore hurt the work of the Solesmes musicology atelier.

I assume there would be copyright issues doing this.

Ora

The Solesmes abbey sells chant books for a living so, the least we can do to help its community is buying hard copies.

Happy Easter.

By the way, just curious, what is you point of view on rhythmic signs removal in most recent Solesmes' chant books?

Well they did not work as intended... also some of them were found to be wrong, and different Solesmes books had different placements of them.

I think it is a good idea to remove them, my choir sings in a far more fluid way when we use music that does not have them.

The better chant directors go through the text and interpret the music to amplify the text. This is a good way of singing chant as 'largely' the text has been used as a basis for producing the chant melody. But his takes time, ability, and practice not things always available in copious quantities, oh and I forgot a choir with voices that do not need to take a breath!

The other thing is each choir develops its own style... this is important, but some styles can make it difficult to amplify some of the texts.

I'm more used to singing with the rhythmic signs as it's the way I was trained a some years before the 2005 Antiphonale Monasticum was released. But I also use Les Heures Grégoriennes for the Divine Office and it doesn't have them except for some hymns. I'm a bit mixed about them. I have to work with and without, because the abbey I am associated with uses them, our choir uses them, but for my personal chanting of the Office I don't use them because the books I have don't have them.

I've gotten use to singing without them now and I find them a bit of a distraction. Sometimes in rehearsals our schola will get hung up on episemas, "this one shouldn't be too lengthened but this one should be stretched out", etc. etc.; it gets confusing if they don't all have equal value. I think for less experienced choirs, it is better to omit them and concentrate on accurate reading, pitch and timing.

I haven't yet purchased the new hymnal. Mostly because the quality of the Solesmes bindings isn't so great. Actually, it's terrible. The Liber Hymnarius I have used to belong to our prior. It was beautifully rebound with a much better binding by the abbey's own book bindery. I use it mostly for the Office of Readings (Vigils) which is not in Les Heures. For the new saints, just stick with the commons; I don't think too many of the new saints have proper hymns anyway. It likely will just be a reference at the saint's date to the correct commons.

Ora