Diocesan Chant Resources
  • Hey there. New here.

    I was wondering wether any of you have some tips for me in regards to looking up rather specific chants.
    I like to chant the 1960 breviary when i get the time every now and then, and i managed to get my hands on the propers for the feasts of my diocese (Osnabruggensis. Actually Hamburg but that Diocese didnt exist in 1960, and the area was incorporated into Osnabrück).
    There are some unique propers among these, especially Saint Ansgar, the Apostle Saint of North germany and Scandinavia.

    In Part he shares some Antiphons and Responsories with the Feast of Saint Pauls Conversion, but he also has some, specifically made for his feast.
    Thing is, i just cant find the Notes for them. Ive called and looked online at the diocesan Library of Osnabrück, and they didnt seem to have anything of the like. Ive mainly looked for Liber Antiphonarii in the area, hoping that they would have an Osnabruggensis Appendix.
    If any of you Know other terms under which one could look this up, help would be much appreciated.

    With kind regards
    Julius Krüger
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,792
    Have you checked cantusdatabase.org? I don't get any hits for "Ansgar" but if you have titles that might lead to mss.
  • Moin moin und herzlich willkommen! I see that the Proper of the Mass for St. Ansgar is available here courtesy of Fr. Ulrich Terlinden. Perhaps he could be of assistance in locating the chants for the Office antiphons and responsories.
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,770
    I only have this, https://introibo.net/kalender_lokal.php

    Perhaps it would be worth looking on Gregobase to see if the chants are used in other places. Sadly very few of the local calendars are available as musical supplements.
  • @Richard Mix
    In latin his name is often written as Anscharius, in the antiphons though with G. example "Vas aureum * in honorem est mihi Ansgarius, ut portet nomen meum coram gentibus er tergibus."

    @madorganist
    A fellow german i presume? you wouldnt happen to be a northerner aswell would you?
    I do have access to the propers already thank you. We get to celebrate High Mass in his Honor.

    @tomjaw
    I do have the propers in Text, but a lot of them are written individually for him. Even his own Hymn and some responsories.
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,792
    I see CANTUS indexed him as Anskar! There seem to be two antiphons in an undigitized Polish manuscript.
    Thanked by 1Julius_Krüger
  • Unfortunately not, but I spent a summer semester in Oldenburg, which as you probably know belongs to the Münster diocese for historical reasons, despite being right in the middle of the territory of the Osnabrück diocese. There was an Ansgari-Kirche (Lutheran) just a few blocks from my dormitory, so of course I had to look up who this saint was that I had never heard of. I think many Catholic foreigners have the idea that St. Boniface evangelized all of present-day Germany, which isn't true! It pleases me to see that St. Charlemagne appears on the Osnabrück calendar for January 28. A search for "ansgari pater optime" turns up quite a few hits, including a version of the hymn in English! I wonder if the Benedictine monasteries in your area might have the chants you're seeking?
    Thanked by 1Julius_Krüger
  • @Richard Mix
    That is cool, though unfortunately the texts do not correspond with anything from the Osnabrücker propers at my disposal

    @madorganist
    good idea. Theres unfortunately only one benedictine monastery anywhere close to Hamburg, though there ought to be some elsewhere in the diocese of Osnabrück. The one near Hamburg is rather young but maybe they still have something.

    @a_f_hawkins
    That looks amazing! Not all corresponds to what i have, but the last two responsories share some text with the last 2 Responsories of the propers of the osnabrück appendix.
    How did you even find this??

    R8 Posuit os/Ansgari servus
    https://www2.musik.uu.se/hystorie/noter/Ansgar R8.pdf

    R9 Ansgari dedi te/Ego elegi
    https://www2.musik.uu.se/hystorie/noter/Ansgar R9.pdf

    It is blessed to at least have 2 Ancient melodies. Unfortunately these dont contain notes for the entire text, but its already a good start to have some of it. Thats already something to work with.

    Weirdly enough, the Text of a lot of the Matins Antiphons and probably the other antiphons aswell corresponds with individual Stanzas of the Laudes Hymn.
    Teh Invitatorium is almost the same besides the last two words.

    Im considering asking a friend(or maybe someone from here *wink wink* to compose something for the present text, and if fragments from the original can be incorporated, all the better!
  • igneusigneus
    Posts: 380
    https://digitalisate.sub.uni-hamburg.de has quite a few instances of "Breviarium Hamburgense", mostly from the 15th. c. The winter volumes among them have at the back also the feast of St. Ansgar, e.g.


    (Later on the breviary was also printed, but so far I haven't been able to track down a digitized copy.)

    EDIT: Breviarium Hamburgense, Rostock 1508, f. 154r

    The bad news is that chants in the manuscripts don't match those of the winter part of the Osnabrück officia propria, which suggests that even local notated sources won't be of much help. The formulary was probably composed anew sometime in the post-Tridentine period. (Or the Osnabrück proper reproduces some other local tradition of the formulary, different from the medieval Hamburg one, but I doubt it - the overall style of the chants doesn't have a medieval smell.)
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • igneusigneus
    Posts: 380
    St. Ansgar is - or was - celebrated in the Solesmes congregation (Officia propria congregationis Gallicæ Ordinis Sancti Benedicti, 1880), which makes a decent chance of finding the respective chants, but unfortunately none of them (except of the hymn Ansgari pater optime) matches the Osnabrück formulary.

    In a hymnal of the same congregation (Hymni de tempore et de sanctis in textu antiquo et novo cum tonis usitatis in congregatione Gallica O.S.B., 1885) the hymn's tune is referenced.

    There's a Benedictine Vesperale supplement with notated hymns and Gospel antiphons in an appendix (Supplementum ad Vesperale Romanum pro omnibus sub Regula S. P. N. Benedicti militantibus, Ratisbonae 1895), but again with the Benedictine antiphons, not the Osnabrück ones.