Happy Feast Day,

Over a year ago I started working on a typesetting project, where I hoped to produce a booklet for weekly Vespers according to the pre-Pian (pre-1911) Roman Psalter, using music from Solesmes editions that included the 'rhythmic signs'. I began doing this simply to see for myself what the Divine Office was like before all the psalms got moved around. I recently had a bit of time on my hands though, which I used to graduate from cutting and pasting print-screened plainchant images into Word documents, to doing everything in gregorio + Latex. I'm still learning, but I'm pretty happy with my results so far, so I thought I'd share in case anyone is interested.

My new document includes not just the ferial psalms and antiphons, but also:

-hymns (pre-Urban VIII text, apologies if anyone had a special devotion to the gods on Mt Olympus, Liber Usualis melodies, with extra seasonal melodies for use ad libitum from the Antiphonale Monasticum),
-"pointed" psalm text wherever possible for ease of singing,
-ferial Magnificat antiphons,
-Preces feriales,
-Tridentine commemorations,

and some ornamentation that I had fun with, such as an oversize 4-colour letter D. Essentially, all parts of the Office are laid out clearly, and all the music is there for an entirely sung Dominical/Semiduplex, Simplex or Ferial Vespers per annum, with the appropriate orations or Magnificat antiphons supplied from another source (like a Liber Usualis).

There were many aesthetic choices made regarding which editions/settings of the chant to include: overall more music from Benedictine sources was used. The psalm tones, it will be noticed, are Benedictine not Roman. There were 5 ferial antiphons that did not appear in any of my Solesmes sources. I obtained music for these from these guys. The order of Vespers is strictly Roman however: I resisted the temptation to include the responsoria brevia that come before the hymn in the monastic office.

For the future I still hope to:
-make a version with English rubrics,
-include Compline,
-sort out the issue with some of the quilismas, where they end up separate from the preceding note.

If you happen to find this interesting and end up looking through, please let me know of any comments or criticism you might have (besides the obvious: that it's an anachronism), or any typos, rubrical errors, Latin errors, psalm-pointing errors, or other mistakes I might have made.

Bernard Stockermans

December 2015 Edit:
I've uploaded a version that includes Compline and some corrections here and there. I've also uploaded a bilingual version of just Sunday Vespers and Compline (for every day outside of Eastertide).