Whats the deal with the Ordo Responsorialis?
  • ARC_Jols
    Posts: 29
    Does anyone know if it can be used like for the public recitation? Is it just an experiment? Any info on it would be appreciated.

    The PDF is floating around here, this is the cover page:

    ORDO RESPONSORIALIS

    ANTIPHONALIS ROMANI IUXTA μLITURGIAM HORARUM
    EDITIONIS TYPICÆ ALTERIUS

    RESPONSORIORUM AD OFFICIUM LECTIONIS SCHEMA PRIMUM

    QUOD A CONGREGATIONE DE CULTU DIVINO ET DISCIPLINA SACRAMENTORUM CLEMENTISSMIME PROBANDA

    Gerolitus Ammosaulicus (H. P. Sandhofe) diligenter compilavit

    BONNÆ AD RHENUM — MMIV — ÆDIBUS PALMARUM
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    To clarify my previous comment (which this replaces): this 2004 book by Holger Peter Sandhofe (d. 2005) offered a proposed schedule of responsory texts for the Office of Readings. Its purpose was to make up for the fact that many of the responsory texts given in the postconciliar Liturgia Horarum (LH) were invented for it and have no historical melodies, and the Church had not published any melodies for them.

    Sandhofe's Ordo preserves the responsory text from the LH whenever it has a historical melody; for some newer texts, Sandhofe offers a similar text from the chant repertory to replace it. The "NR" numbers for most entries indicate where to find the chant melody in Sandhofe's previous book, Nocturnale Romanum (NR).

    By itself, this Ordo book isn't directly useful for celebrations of the Office of Readings; it was, in effect, a proposal for CDWDS to consider. And if lay people should wish to follow it in private observances, there's no obstacle to doing so.

    In 2015, CDWDS itself published a new edition of Ordo Cantus Officii, which provided antiphons to be used in the Office when it is sung. The introduction to the OCO acknowledges the problem: "In the current absence of a responsorial source that encompasses the whole Office, the responsory is presented with a reduced selection, with enough variety that on Sundays and Solemnities one or more responsories can be sung, if desired." (OCO, page 10, my translation from the Latin). The 45 responsories used were cited from the Liber Hymnarius, pp. 487-526.