One example: the way the assigned melody fits the translation of Audi benigne conditor gives you a stress pattern of "O lov-ING ma-KER hear THE pray'rs".
I was disappointed for a moment, but then I continued singing the Latin hymns and noticed most do not rhyme. It almost seems like chance when it does, since there are only so many endings. Still, it hits different when the English doesn't rhyme, since we're so used to metric poetry rhyming.
Prayers are important and should be composed in beautiful sacral language. Rhyming texts run off the tongue and are a joy to use and to sing, and are a source of true beauty. Since we have beautiful translations why not use these?It's good to remember that the purpose of the hymnal is to PRAY the Office, not attain an academic perfection we set. It is not easy to translate hymns of the Office.
... and three for Christ the High Priest (I didn't know this feast existed). In the case of the latter hymns, though, I think there might have been a mistake in attribution? The feast dates to 2012 but the book cites my dude Anselmo Lentini, who died in 1989, as the hymns' author.
It's interesting that the feast's hymns are included, given it currently doesn't seem to be on any liturgical calendar in the USA.
We use it daily and I really wish the music was in chant notation because many are pitched too low.
The metrical hymns are pitched rather too high and too few
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