Liber Hymnarius – various questions

  • Daytime prayer
    In Tempus Per Annum it gives a different tone for the hymns for Sundays/Solemnities/Feasts/Memorials/Feria, but in Proprium de Tempore it only gives a single tone. For Solemnities/Feasts/Memorials in Advent/Christmas/etc. should I take the tone for the season, or go back to the Tempus per Annum tones?
    I guess I also have the same question for Compline.

    Responsories
    I’m not familiar with the EF responsories in the Usualis; do those in the Liber Hymnarius follow the same format as Liturgia Horarum? I noticed it also includes tones for the Gloria Patri for the responsory, and I’m not quite sure where that fits in.
    Also, it gives multiple responsories within each different season, but most aren’t assigned to particular days (for example, it only gives the responsory for the first Sunday of Advent for the entire season, and it gives seven different responsories for ordinary time). Am I to take that to mean that these responsories are options for each reading for every single day in that season, or am I supposed to know which readings and days they correspond to?

    If anyone can provide some answers or direct me to a resource to better understand the Liber Hymnarius, that would be greatly appreciated!
  • GerardH
    Posts: 411
    @connorcompanik Your questions are a little confusing. In your first, are you talking about hymns, responsories or antiphons?

    Your second question makes a little more sense; I think I can answer the first half.

    There are two types of responsories in the Office. Within the offices of Lauds, Vespers and Compline, you find the Short Responsory. This includes a response, a verse and the Gloria Patri. The responsories within the office of Matins/Office of Readings are not short. They usually include a response and a verse (sometimes two), but no Gloria Patri. The Liber Hymnarius provides responsories only for Matins/Office of Readings. For examples of Short Responsories with Gloria Patri, look at the Antiphonale Romanum II. (Technically the L.H. is the Antiphonale Romanum I)

    In the latter half of your second question, at one point it seems you confuse antiphons with responsories. I think I somewhat understand though. Why is only one responsory provided for some celebrations (e.g. Christ the King has only Ecce appareabit) when at least two are required in the Office of Readings? I confess I do not know. Perhaps someone else on the forum can enlighten us?
  • @GerardH Thank you for your response! It seems I wasn’t very clear in my questioning, but I guess that only shows how little I know about this book. Yes, the first question is referring to the Hymns for the daytime hour, and the second question is about responsories (not antiphons). Am I understanding correctly that the Gloria Patri tones in the LH actually correspond to the responsories at Lauds and Vespers as in AR II, where tones are already given, and which seem to be only ever in modes IV or VI? That seems odd to me—my guess was that they related to the Office of Readings, but perhaps followed a different format, such as that of the Usualis (which I’m not familiar with, only guessing).
  • For daytime prayer, I refer to the Ordo of our abbey. For solemnities, use the tone of the solemnity. For feasts and memorials, during Advent, Lent, Christmas and Eastertide, use the seasonal tone.

    Ora
    Thanked by 1connorcompanik
  • Am I to take that to mean that these responsories are options for each reading for every single day in that season, or am I supposed to know which readings and days they correspond to?

    As the preface to the Liber hymnarius itself says (p. xi), the longer responsories given there (from. p. 487 onwards) are meant as a sampling from the vast repertory of responsories of the traditional Divine Office. They are provided as options to sing in place of the responsories contained in the Liturgia horarum which often are new texts without melody existing yet. Thus, some are assigned to the one of the two readings of a particular day, others have assigned merely to some feast or season.