Project - The Book of Hymns (Breviary)
  • awilliamsawilliams
    Posts: 101
    I wanted to share (and also request criticism of) a project I have been working on lately. I am calling it the "Book of Hymns" and it is essentially an English rendering of the Liber Hymnarius with the exception of the invitiatories and responsories. Here is what I have finished so far. (Advent I-Compline of Advent II)

    I have been trying to stick to translations which are in the public domain but if that is not possible, I have been translating the hymns myself.

    I know that many people argue that English ought not be put to the Latin melody and while I agree that sometimes it is difficult to sing I feel there is something to be said about maintaining the traditional melodies.

    So, here is food for thought.
    The Book of Hymns_Advent I .pdf
    699K
    Thanked by 1Daniel Bennett Page
  • awilliamsawilliams
    Posts: 101
    Hmm...I had to lower the file size to post it and the chant lost its quality.
  • JonathanKKJonathanKK
    Posts: 542
    Here are my random comments after looking it over quickly:
    Very nice looking layout of things - it is tidy, authentic looking.
    I don't know what the intent of the project is, but I would note that I have seen Anglican-ish resources for singing the Roman office in English which would have had similar style English adapted Latin hymns; this reminded me of them.
    Beginners (really, anyone not familiar with a tune) will want to have all the verses written out, instead of just the first verse.
    Re: pdf quality - are you using Tex to run Gregorio, or are you producing pdf's online and copying them into a Word-type document? If you are doing a larger project, I would recommend Tex as the way to go because after you get it installed, working, and your head around it, it will produce much smaller files with highest quality resolution (this is one among other advantages I have found).
    Vale in Domino,
    Jonathan
  • awilliamsawilliams
    Posts: 101
    I was thinking of buying the Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham to see if they adapted the melodies.

    Yeah I know that some people may find it difficult to read without everything written out. For now I am sticking to how the Liber Hymnarius does it (some written out, some not). However, if I could figure out how to put multiple verses under one staff then I would consider doing it that way (sort of like a hymnal).

    I want to run Tex but that is easier said than done. I have smashed my head against the desk so many times trying to figure it out and can find no clear answers online. If you have a link to a tutorial (Mac) I will gladly do that. I have never had to in the past because I usually just produce sort of one-time things (psalms for weekday masses at the seminary, etc...) but nothing as large as this. I would prefer to do this right which I why I posted what I had so far as early as I did. I don't want to get too far into it then make changes later.

    Aaron
    Thanked by 1veromary
  • bjantz
    Posts: 2
    Great minds must think alike! I've been working on pretty much the same project off and on for about a year now. I've seen this exact concept used to great effect at St Bernard's Abbey, and I wanted a similar resource to go with the Liturgy of the Hours only to find that there was . . . nothing!

    So far, I've been focusing on the Lauds/Vespers hymns for Ordinary Time, ideally with public domain translations for everything. (Which isn't hard for weeks 1/3, but I've gotten a bit bogged down in trying to translate some of the week 2/4 material.) I've attached a sample of what I have so far.

    I have Gregorio/Tex working on my (windows) computer, but I'm not exactly an advanced user. And I've also had the same frustration with wanting to get extra verses under one staff -- that would make congregational use much easier.

    This is something that really should have been done decades ago, but it looks like it may just have to be done by a dedicated group who cares. Interested in collaborating?

    image
    loth_english_hymns.pdf
    92K
    Thanked by 1Ben
  • awilliamsawilliams
    Posts: 101
    Weeks two and four are causing me trouble which is why I have avoided them by starting in Advent. I would love to work with you on this. How do you want to about doing it? I have been fighting all day trying to install gregorio but have been fruitless so far.
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