Compline Book (1962's Rubrics, Lat-Spa) & Organ Accompaniment
  • Hi there, people!

    First post, so, let me briefly introduce myself:

    My name is Amadeo, a not so long catholic convert (Nov-2018) which the Lord called to sing Gregorian Chant to his greater Glory since august 2019. I am better known in the internet realm as Verbum Gloriae, the name of the apostolate of Gregoriant Chant that I started on Feb. 2021 with both a website and a YouTube channel, named likewise, where I record chants, have PDF books (some of my own, but most of them downloaded from sites like CMAA, ccwatershed...), links, resources, etc.: everything that I found when I began the journey of singing Gregorian Chant. And served in Spanish (not the chants! haha), for since I am Spaniard and must say our liturgical music environment is quite poor, deficient, in comparison to that of France or the USA, for instance; as poor as the presence of the Traditional Latin Mass in our country, which is nowadays slowly, but steadily, flourishing. So, let's say I am trying to put my grain of salt to the cause of Gregorian Chant for the wide Spanish-speaking community.

    Now, to the point:
    My family and I began singing Compline every night thanks to Bloomfield's app almost a year ago and, inspired by his work and Veronica Brandt's English Compline booklet (which I read about here) I decided to create a Latin-Spanish Compline book (1962's rubrics) plus, since I studied piano for 7 years, an organ accompaniment book made up with all the organ material found at ccwatershed (Bragers, Potiron, Bas...) for people like me, that without scores am nothing.

    Compline Book
    That resulted in the book which I announced in my blog [Oct/22/22] (note: it is in Spanish, but any website translator should do) and that I am attaching here, plus a first version of its organ accompaniment. Both books, and everything I do in Verbum Gloriae, is to the greater glory of God, so it will always be free, but you can find them, anyway, in Amazon and Lulu if should anybody want a printed copy.

    Organ Accompaniment
    Then God gave me the chance to move to Toledo a few months ago (I am from Seville) to serve in the church of El Salvador as full-time organist and cantor. Note that it is one of the fewest churches in Spain that celebrates the Extraordinary Form daily. They also have a great YouTube channel where they daily broadcast Mass, Vespers, Compline, upload meditations, preaches and other devotional contents plus a liturgical blog full of resources for the EF and a devotional blog full of prayers, meditations and stuff like that (all of it in Spanish, sure).

    In the church they have a small but neat pipe organ (2 stops for pedals, 4 for manual I and 5 for manual II) and I was so used to the transposer of my Viscount keyboard that I ended up needing to transpose all the music sheets that were too high-pitched (remember I can only read scores). That is how I ended up manually retyping (and transposing) every score of the first version of the Compline's organ accompaniment book which I made of images extracted from the organ books. And here it is in its version 2.0, as published in my blog yesterday.

    I have attached two files, one thought to be printed and the other one, thought for digital devices, for it has internal hyperlinks to move around pages. These are: headers always send to index, some bold words and texts saying "Ir a..." which means "Go to...". Again, for a printed copy: Lulu. (Please, note too: the Compline book also works perfectly both printed and digitally, for it also has internal hyperlinks, page numbers, etc. for both uses.)

    Final Thoughts
    I wanted to share this with you, for I have already received so much from this community in the things you post (you inspire people overseas!), that I wanted to thank you all by sharing my efforts, which I hope you guys find useful.

    And, sure, I have put all my attention into the making of these materials, but I am afraid they will not be free of typos, so any heads ups, suggestions and/or constructive critics are always much welcome.

    Once again, thank you guys for what you do.

    United in prayer,
    Amadeo (Verbum Gloriae)
  • igneusigneus
    Posts: 376
    Lovely.

    What I miss is a clear differentiation between actual rubrics and local/personal customs and preferences.

    RÚBRICAS DE LA ANTÍFONA A LA B. V. MARÍA ... DE LOS TONOS:
    Tono simple: Se canta de lunes a viernes, incluidos los días feriales de cualquier rango (por ejemplo: Miércoles de Ceniza, Lunes a Miércoles Santo, etc.). ...


    is an example of the latter. The antiphonale doesn't contain any rubrics on when the simple tones are to be used. In fact the 1912 antiphonale edition doesn't include the simple tones at all. The 1949 Solesmes edition includes them, but doesn't comment beyond the laconic heading "In cantu simplici". They were clearly meant as an easier option for weaker communities/congregations, not as an expression of progressive solemnity.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • I am delighted to see the efforts to set Compline for use by those outside institutions.

    Might I suggest that Monastic compline (though sadly lacking the Nunc Dimittis) is the easiest and simplest solution?
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • Thank you for your replies!

    Igneus, interesting what you say! I somewhat knew the chant tradition had only the solemn tone, but I thought these were the actual 1962's rubrics (sorry, for I do not recall right now where I got those rubrics from), for I had friends at the IBP & FSSP checking the book and they did not say anything about that. Besides, that is what I have always seen them do. I just do not know any further, but sure you have a point in what you say!

    Palestrina, the Monastic compline you mention is indeed the easiest one. I just decided to make this one for it was the one in use by the people I know.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw