Chanting the Benedicamus Domino during the week days in the Divine Office
  • etheleethele
    Posts: 6
    Hi everyone,

    I am singing the LOBVM and found out the following information regarding the Benedicamus Domino:

    - The Liber gives variations for lauds, 1. and 2. vespers for: feasts (class 1, 2,3), feasts of the BVM, on Sundays during the year, during Advent/Lent and during Easter. (Liber Usualis p. 124-12).

    - It also says how to sing the BD on Sundays for the little hours (e.g. Liber Usualis p. 273).

    My question is as follows:

    a) How am I supposed to chant the Benedicamos Domino for matins, lauds and vespers on a week day without any feasts or Sundays?

    b) How am I supposed to chant the Benedicamos Domino for the little hours on a week day without any feasts or Sundays    ?


    Thank you for your help and inputs
    Ezechiel
    Thanked by 1Chris Garton-Zavesky
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    I have wondered this myself. Thank you for proposing the question for discussion.

    Welcome, by the way, to the comment side of the forum.
    Thanked by 1ethele
  • etheleethele
    Posts: 6
    I mean, someone who practiced chanting the whole Divine Office pre 1963 would know the rules and regulations to everything. It would be great to talk with someone like that :-)
  • StimsonInRehabStimsonInRehab
    Posts: 1,916
    Ethele, JonathanKK would be an excellent person to talk to on this matter. He has a website dedicated to chanting the Pre-63 Divine Office (specifically Lauds). I don’t know how often he posts on here anymore, but if you’d like I could reach out to him and get him in contact with you.
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,703
    This book may help, A complete little office published by Solesmes, https://www.dropbox.com/s/5jet8rmoy2cdlrz/Little Office B.V.M..pdf?dl=0
    As far as I can see it only have the BVM melody.

    Of course the question does remain does one always use the BVM melody on feasts of our lady or does one use a more solemn version on the major feasts. I suspect that ad lib. is the key principle.
  • etheleethele
    Posts: 6
    StimsonInRehab, thank you! I'll contact Jonathan Kallen. I emailed with him a couple of years ago when not even Veronica Brandt's course on Udemy about singing the little office was in existence. Back then it was all too complex and complicated for me but now I have it almost figured it out except that benedicamus part ;-)
  • etheleethele
    Posts: 6
    tomjaw, thank you. I'll check out that link. I like the idea of variation for the benedicamus domino for the LOBVM. It does spice it up a little and is closer to the Divinum Officium pre 1963. What I can already see is that in the french version you sent via dropbox that they sing some parts different from the Baronius Press version (deus in adjutorium, little chapter, lesson, etc.). but the benedicamus domino for the minor hours are the same as for the mass XVI (ferias throughout the year), which makes sense. and for the major hours they only sing the feast tone for the BVM.
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,703
    @ethele
    The Baronius Press version was made I think without knowledge of the Solesmes version. I think Baronius had to take some music from other parts of the Divine Office, as they could not find a source with all the music. While the Solesmes version is in french they probably also had a Latin version and maybe even an English version. I have a Solesmes Compline book of a similar date in Latin with English translations.
  • etheleethele
    Posts: 6
    @tomjaw

    Thank you for that input. JonathanKK suggests treating the LOBVM the same as the Divine Office with all the rubrics from the Antiphonale. Your Solesmes version in French treats it mainly as a Marian feast day throughout the year. So does Veronica Brandt in her Udemy course and so also suggests Br. James Garrity from the Clear Creek Abbey. Meaning the Benedicamus Domino is sung in the Marian feast tone for the major hours and as on a Sunday for the minor hours. However, I'd love to have a clear authority on the LOBVM and its rubrics but apparently it is not as easy as I assumed.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Ezechiel,

    May I expand the question, slightly, since you've had a response from Jonathan?

    Does the Benedicamus Domino for the "little hours" conform to that for Lauds, for Matins, for Vespers, or for Compline?
  • etheleethele
    Posts: 6
    @Chris

    The Benedicamus Domino for the little hours is always the same for every day of the year. It is found in the liber antiphonarius on page 1'334.
    Thanked by 1Chris Garton-Zavesky
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 1,937
    FWIW, this is also one of the shortcoming of the Liber Usualis, which doesn't print the chapter of the ferial days on which one might sing a O Antiphon, nor does it print the Benedicamus Domino. I suspect that it's meant to be used only on Saturday, Sunday, or December 21 (or 22 when the feast of St Thomas would otherwise occur on the IV Sunday of Advent), so all of the antiphons are provided in order to sing the office regardless of the dates. But you have everything else needed, since you need the ferial psalms almost daily after 1911, even on feasts.
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