I hope this little calendar will prove useful for many parishes. All of these Antiphons may be sung to many common tunes, such as Creator Alme Siderum (Creator of the Stars of Night), Old 100th (All People That on Earth Do Dwell), Duke Street (Jesus Shall Reign), or Jesu Dulcis Memoria (O Radiant Light, O Sun Divine).
Anyone can feel free to print this out and hand it to his/her pastor, or music director, and who knows, maybe there will be sung antiphons at your parish all through Advent this year!
I'm attaching PDF files for the music "templates" for the Advent Metrical Introits, as Kathy and I have conceived of them.
The harmonizations of the traditional Roman and the Sarum versions of the hymn tune CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM are my own, as is the Anglican Double Chant (for verse groups requiring a Single Chant, one uses A & D), taken from my collection of penitential Anglican Chants.
I will begin adding Kathy's Metrical Antiphons and the Psalm verses immediately, hoping to have all of Advent ready in a few days.
I just love the arrangement, the movement in the bass, and the resolutions. Sublime!
If anyone is wondering what this project (Adam's, too) is about, it's for those parishes that have not been able to use propers at all to this point, and would like to begin a very gentle transition.
This comment on Chant Cafe tells it all: "I just got the approval of our pastor for weekday masses!!!!!!!...the very first baby step allowed in our parish!!!"
Okay, after some slight reformatting (and a minor correction to the Anglican chant), I've prepared the Metrical Introit for the first Sunday of Advent, so the PDF is attached. The pointing of the Psalm verses follows current practice; however, the number of lines in each verse group varies from two to four. Although there are letters before each line of the chant indicating which of the four parts (A,B,C,D) is to be sung, the rules for using this chant are better described as follows:
(1) When four lines are in a group, all four parts (A,B,C,D) of the Double Chant are sung. (2) When only two lines are in a group, the first and last parts (A,D) of the Double Chant are sung. (3) When there are three lines in a group, the first and second parts (A,B) are used for the first two lines, and the third line is sung using the first two bars of part C and the last two bars of part D (annotated as C-D before the third line).
The music for the double chant has a pair of horizontal brackets that remind the organist and singer that the bracketed measures are skipped when chanting a three-line group.
These instructions will be spelled out when the Advent Introits are assembled together in booklet form.
Enjoy!!
Edit: I updated the PDF with a couple of minor changes to the harmony of the hymn tune.
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