Entrance Antiphon Hymns Project (mostly) completed
  • lmassery
    Posts: 307
    Announcing the completion of my Entrance Antiphon Hymns Project. At a glance, here are some features:

    1. A hymn for literally every day of the year (saints, memorials, commons, seasonal weekdays, etc)
    2. Multiple settings per solemnity - very familiar tunes
    3. Organ/choir scores, text only, JPEGs and PDFs of melody for worship aids
    4. Musescore source files for transpositions.
    5. Both Missal AND Gradual antiphons for each Solemnity (minus a few of the super long ones from the GR ).
    Sometimes both combined into one hymn.
    6. Antiphon AND accompanying verse from Roman Gradual and a doxology.
    6. Spiral bound organ book on Lulu press.
    7. Public domain tunes and harmonizations (or my own) to allow...
    8. Completely free usage, licensed under creative commons.

    Here is the site: https://www.antiphonrenewal.com/entrance-antiphon-hymn-project
    Here is the about page: https://www.antiphonrenewal.com/about-the-entrance-antiphon-hymn-pr

    Also reachable at www.entranceantiphonhymns.com

    We worked incredibly hard on this project - I hope some of you find it useful!
    God Bless,

    Luke Massery
    Thanked by 13Kathy JMJones trentonjconn ServiamScores Heath CHGiffen Jehan_Boutte Juan Andrés marymezzo SrEleanor RedPop4 Andrew_Malton Aristotle Esguerra
  • RMSawicki
    Posts: 82
    BRAVO!! BRAVO!! BRAVO!!

    Gaudete in Domino Semper!
    Thanked by 2lmassery RedPop4
  • Jenny Donelson
    Posts: 193
    This is really impressive and helpful, Luke. Thank you for sharing.
    Thanked by 2lmassery RedPop4
  • Bobby Bolin
    Posts: 403
    Highly recommended! Great job by Luke and Greg!
    Thanked by 2lmassery RedPop4
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 994
    These are very well done. I've been perusing them a bit and I'm quite heartened with how well so many of them work.

    I only have one quibble and that is with how they were engraved: it is standard practice to not have staff lines cutting through the text when setting hymns (ie- like a hymnal).

    Apart from that, a hearty bravo indeed!
    Thanked by 3lmassery CHGiffen RedPop4
  • JMoellman
    Posts: 25
    When I read the initial post, I immediately thought of Greg Heislman, and my conversation a few years ago encouraging him to collect and share his wonderful adaptations. I am so grateful to all involved to make this happen.
    Hymnals have been CoVid-lifted from all the churches around here, so this will be a resource to recommend highly!
    Thanked by 2lmassery RedPop4
  • RedPop4
    Posts: 26
    Since these first popped up on Noel Jones FB group during Advent, I have used them nearly every week. They have become my "go-to" at St. Rita of Cascia, New Orleans. Luke and Greg, THANK YOU!!!
    Thanked by 1lmassery
  • lmassery
    Posts: 307
    Thank you all very much. Just an update, at the suggestion of a forum member, I have now begun posting OFFERTORY antiphon hymns at the same website above.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,333
    Wow, all we can say is thank you!!!!
    Thanked by 1lmassery
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,043
    This is beyond praise!
    What a gift to the Church, to all of us!
    It is a work too long needed - it is a true 'graduale' of proper hymnody.
    Why wasn't this done right after the council for those who didn't want the propers themselves in English, Latin, or Urdu?

    I stumbled on one theological oversight that you might want to look into -
    namely with the entrance hymn for Christ the King.
    You have -
    Worthy is the Lamb once slain
    His divinity to gain.
    Our Lord did not gain his divinity by being slain -
    He had it from of everlasting -
    'begotten of the Father before all worlds. God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God.'

    I can't, though, be but in awe of what you have done.
    Deo gratias!
    Thanked by 4ServiamScores CHGiffen lmassery Jehan_Boutte
  • m_r_taylor
    Posts: 228
    WOW! This is a real gift.
    Thanked by 1lmassery
  • lmassery
    Posts: 307
    Mr Osborn,
    Thank you so much for the praise! Glory be to God. And yes, it will hopefully be a “graduale” of proper hymnody.

    I thought of the exact same theological question when crafting that antiphon for Christ the King. The antiphon itself does say that the lamb “receives” his divinity. I hoped that “gain” was close enough so I could rhyme it with slain.

    This is the original antiphon: “How worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
    to receive power and divinity,
    and wisdom and strength and honor.
    To him belong glory and power for ever and ever.”

    At any rate I’ll see if I can think of anything better and please do bring up any other phrases that strike you as odd.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,043
    Interesting. I had never really thought about the implications of that antiphon, but there is a real theological problem with it. As stated above, Christ's divinity was from of everlasting, 'before all worlds' and was not received because of being slain. The ideas expressed in the antiphon are indeed noble, but on closer inspection there is a very questionable assertion. Yet, the reference being to Revelation 5.12, divininatem indeed appears in the Vulgate and in the GR, and in Douai as 'divinity', so I guess you are safe. To me it still doesn't quite add up.

    At any rate, your work is a treasure.
    Thanked by 2ServiamScores lmassery
  • lmassery
    Posts: 307
    My sincerest thanks, again. There are indeed some puzzling lines in scripture and I guess that’s why we need the Church’s interpretive authority to put it all together for us into doctrine.

    Thank you thank you for the encouraging words
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 2,728
    There are indeed some puzzling lines in scripture, and many of them in Revelation. Understanding verbs, and translating tenses adequately is a particular difficulty. It's worse with Hebrew but Greek also present problems particularly with the aorist, and λαβεῖν here, to take/receive, is an infinitve aorist active. Active, so not be given, and aorist so not easily classifiable as past present or future.
    Add to that the whole nature of John's heavenly vision as essentially outside our temporal viewpoint, and you have given translators bad headaches. "I guess that’s why we need the Church’s interpretive authority" ✓
    [NB I am no expert here, I just know it is very complex]
  • lmassery
    Posts: 307
    Update on this project: The Offertory Antiphon Hymns Collection is now (mostly) complete. The link above contains PNGs, melody, and SATB/ORGAN scores. Whereas the Entrance Antiphons use maximally familiar tunes, I've branched out somewhat into lesser-known tunes for the offertory. They make nice easy choir motets.
    There is only one offertory in the entire year I could not set, which is OT 27. It goes something like this "There was a man named Job from the land of Hus whose body was covered with boils and pus, amen." Couldn't do that, so I set the wonderful prayer of Job from the same chapter. Thanks
    Thanked by 2ServiamScores CHGiffen
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 994
    About six or seven months ago I started employing your texts (although I do my own engravings to match my worship aid and I frequently use different melodies) And I have to say that this is just been such a phenomenal resource. I particularly appreciate that they are only one or two verses which means that we can have the congregation sing the version that you have devised and then we can have our schola immediately follow up with some vernacular chant while the altar is being incensed. It is, in a way, the best of both worlds because the hymn reinforces the chant that people are hearing and yet the people get to sing a “hymn” but we actually do justice to the proper text. I am very grateful to you.
  • CGM
    Posts: 525
    As far as turning Offertories into hymns, Aristotle Esguerra did a set of those a few years back.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen ServiamScores
  • lmassery
    Posts: 307
    Serviam- that’s great! I’m so glad. And I followed your engraving suggestion above with the offertories, so thanks for that!

    CGM- wow! I had no idea Aristotle did those, and will link to them from my site. They really got buried in the forum, unfortunately.
    Thanked by 1ServiamScores
  • JMJones
    Posts: 64
    Re: receive/gain

    Christ "receives" his divine nature from His Father... as M. Jackson Osborn points out - "from of everlasting." I don't read Revelation 5:12 as implying a particular time that Christ receives his divinity... just that he is worthily divine. Most of those other attributes - wisdom, strength, glory, honor, and power - have been present all along as well, and Christ worthily bears all of those attributes, as evidenced by His sacrifice. I do think that "gain" implies something else...
  • CarsonHaupt
    Posts: 38
    I've always understood the antiphon to mean "How worthy is the Lamb (who was slain) to receive...," where 'who was slain' functions as a descriptive of the Lamb, not as a condition for receiving the attributes that follow. I suppose I've never consulted the Latin, but that's been my impression of the English.
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 2,728
    It was written in Greek - τὸ ἀρνίον τὸ ἐσφαγμένον - which literally just says - the lamb the slain. In English this could perhaps be better rendered as 'the slaughtered lamb'.
    Thanked by 1ServiamScores
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