Booklet for Night Prayer (Compline)
  • newmanbenewmanbe
    Posts: 76
    Hello all

    I am preparing a booklet for Night Prayer, which I have attached. You wouldn't believe how many revisions I've done, but now it has music in it, so this turns into an appropriate forum! (And I've settled on whether to use a 10pt or 12pt font.)

    The idea is this: a booklet that can be used for saying Night Prayer in common any day of the week. It uses only the psalm for after Second Vespers on Sunday, and does not contain the reading or the concluding prayer. It is only for outside of the Easter Season.

    The opening invocation and penitential rite will be as in the Compline booklet (PDF) on the CMAA website (also for the final blessing). I think people can figure it out from listening along.

    Te lucis is given as the hymn, with an English translation; it will be sung to a L.M. hymn tune.

    For the tones for the psalm, responsory and canticle, I've used corrupted Gregorian psalm tones. Is this a good idea? How does it sound?

    Some of the people who would be attending are familiar with Vespers done by nearby canons regulars. For the psalm tones, they use stanzas of two, three or four lines. I think the tones are from the Hymnal for the Hours, so this is a comprise between the Gregorian tones and those (I think. I wasn't smart enough to have planned that). We don't need the music for Alma Redemptoris Mater or Ave, Regina caelorum. The canons only sing Salve Regina on Sundays (depending on the cantor), so we won't be using it.

    The idea for "simplifying" and not using more authentic chants is that we'd like it to be easy for people to pick up. (I say we, though it's just myself preparing the booklet.) Our numbers would vary.

    I would appreciate your comments.
    NightPrayer2.pdf
    815K
  • newmanbenewmanbe
    Posts: 76
    The setting for the responsory is a little funkier than it seemed when I was humming it last night.

    I'm not sure what to do with the antiphon for the gospel canticle. (I found a mistake of my pointing of it, but it still does not make me happy.)
  • Dan F.Dan F.
    Posts: 205
    newmanbe,

    I think singing Compline is a wonderful idea. I also understand the desire to simplify things in order to make it more approachable to people unaccustomed to chanting. However, I think you may have simplified perhaps a bit too much. A few suggestions:
    -Since Compline is already the shortest hour, set the entire Sunday text since it can be used on any day. I wouldn't shorten it any more.
    -For the psalms, you are right that often the traditional Gregorian tones are difficult to set to English text. Might I suggest the English Psalm tones of Fr. Weber? These are the ones used in the Mundelein Psalter. You can find them in the pages of Fr. Weber's Gospel Canticles
    -Also in the Gospel Canticles you can find the Nunc Dimittis and its antiphon in English in a variety of tones. I set another version in my Compline booklet that is based upon that found in the Lutheran "green hymnal" but with the official text from the Liturgy of the Hours. I think that the Responsory and Canticle are worth using a slightly more melodic setting since they are repetitive and easily learned.

    Dan
  • newmanbenewmanbe
    Posts: 76
    As a computer scientist of a particular camp, simplifying things too much is what I do.

    One thing that I didn't mention is that the reading and collect would be read by someone with the LOTH (though using the Sunday reading/collect would work too).

    I was trying to not use copyrighted works if I didn't have to, but I might use Fr Weber's tones.

    Thank you for your suggestions.
  • newmanbenewmanbe
    Posts: 76
    On to version three.

    In this edition, not only do we bring back 12pt fonts, but we double the amount of paper!

    I used a St Meinrad Psalm Tone for the psalm. They actually have licensed all their music under a Creative Commons licence (Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License).

    I put in different settings for the responsory and for the canticle and its antiphon. The opening, final blessing and Marian antiphons also have notes to go with them. And an image of the Presentation thrown in with the Nunc Dimittis thrown in for good measure.

    My little introduction on the Liturgy of the Hours also expanded quite a bit, maybe a bit too unwieldy.

    Over all, I much happier with this version.
    NightPrayer3.pdf
    791K
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    A suggestion: I think it would help readers if you put the psalm tone on the same page with the psalm text. Of course, that might force the psalm text to overflow to a second page -- in which case repeating the tone might be helpful (if a page turn is necessitated).

    And, a tiny thing: the "alleluia" on page 2 would look better, followed by a period.

    Quite nice!
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