Ave maris - use of the multiple tones?
  • JonathanKKJonathanKK
    Posts: 542
    I am trying to find out which tones of the Ave Maris Stella should be used for the Little Office - and whether the Baronius book is correct in the two (simple mode 1 and a mode 7) it gives.

    The Antiphonale 1949 gives three tones (modes 1, 4, and 7) of the Ave Maris Stella under "In Festis B.M.V." and two more (the simpler mode 1 and mode 7 given by Baronius) with the "Officium B.M.V. in Sabbato". The section for the Little Office then refers you to the page of the simpler mode 1 Ave Maris. This could be interpreted as referring to just the one tone, or both in that section, or leaving the use of other tones open to your judgement.

    Wikipedia says that the Liber Hymnarius has four tones ranked for different uses, but this is a more recent book, and I don't have one handy.

    Ideas/information anyone?

    Thanked by 1Chrism
  • Chris_McAvoyChris_McAvoy
    Posts: 389
    Much like myself, you tend to have the more unusual questions. (Thank God someone askes these questions! they're interesting.)

    I do not have a definitive answer. I have speculation.

    In the 1534 Sarum use of the Roman rite, under the Common of the BVM, the melody in Tone IV for Ave Maris Stella, which is the same as that in the 1949 Antiphonale says in latin:

    " [ Hic cantus sequens dicatur quotidie infra octavas beate Marie nisi in dominica
    dicetur et in commemoratione ejusdem per totum annum super hunc hymnum.] "

    Which means that this is the melody is used in the Octave, the most familar melody in Tone 1 is used for the great solemmnities. The Liber Hymnarius form 1983 also says more or less the same thing and has those two melodies.

    I dont know anything about the tone seven melody. The liber hymnarius has a third melody (no fourth melody), which is either made up recently or simply one not in the older books! and it says that this one is a melody for "memorials" (or perhaps lower ranking feasts..)


    If I were you I would use as older version of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as I believe that the older they are the more interesting hymns, antiphons, responsories there are preserved in them.

    I'm not really familiar with the early 20th century versions though ...
    I know a pre-1904 latin version exists somewhere online...
    This english version gives a am impression of the older form.
    http://www.allmercifulsavior.com/Liturgy2/Draft-Psalter-11.pdf">
    http://www.allmercifulsavior.com/Liturgy2/Draft-Psalter-11.pdf
    http://www.allmercifulsavior.com/Liturgy2/Draft-Psalter-12.pdf
    http://www.allmercifulsavior.com/Liturgy2/Draft-Psalter-13.pdf

    Unfortunately, the hymn and psalm translations there are not really set up to be very singable though the antiphons work well.

    THis translation is a bit better in some respects, using douay rheims psalms and better hymns; http://www.medievalist.net/hourstxt/

    "By the fourteenth century the Little Office was obligatory for all the clergy. This obligation remained until St. Pius V suppressed it in 1568. Down to the Reformation it formed a central part of the "Primer" and was customarily recited by the devout laity, by whom the practice was continued for long afterwards among the persecuted Catholics. An English-only version appears appended to versions of Bishop Richard Challoner's 'Garden of the Soul' in the eighteenth century, and with the restoration of the hierarchy in the 1860s James Burns issued a Latin and English edition.

    Minor revisions of the (little) Office occurred in the twentieth century, most notably in 1910, as part of Pope Pius X's liturgical reforms. The most significant change made by the pontiff was the shortening of the numbers of psalms recited at Lauds from seven to four (excluding the canticle)."

    " St Bonaventure Publications publish the 1904 edition, which gives the office as it was before Pius X's revisions. "

    Thanked by 1JonathanKK
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