Hymns for Doctors of the Church
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,524
    Has anyone found great hymns that are appropriate for Feasts of the Doctors of the Church?

    This Is the Feast Day/ This the Confessor is one, but are there others?

    I'm especially looking for texts in the public domain.
  • Don9of11Don9of11
    Posts: 803
    I've been compiling a list of hymns to the Saints from my collection of Catholic hymnals starting in 1840 and working my way forward. Currently I'm in the early 1900s. There are what I would classify as "generic" hymns to the Saints for example: "Hymns for a Martyr' s Day," "Hymn for a Saints Day," "Hymn for English Martyrs," "Hymns for Confessors" etc., but nothing specifically for "Doctor's of the Church."

    Now there are numerous hymns for specific Saints like "St. Dominic, St. Agatha, St. Stanislaus," etc. I could send you a list of hymns I've found so far with the first line of the hymn. I decided to attach the list. It is in order of copyright or date of the hymnal. Hope it helps.

    Hymns to Catholic Saints-10-19-22.pdf
    138K
    Thanked by 1Kathy
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,908
    @Kathy
    The Paris Breviary of 1736 has Proper Office Hymns for Doctors... While 'some' dislike this Breviary, St. John Henry Newman translated these hymns...
    Links to relevant material, https://societyofstbede.wordpress.com/2021/06/14/hymns-for-doctors/
    The Sarum sequence Adest Nobis Dies Alma can be modified to mention Doctor N. instead of presul N. We have modified this Sequence for St. Bede. I can't post it here because I have over written the .pdf copy posted on the Sarum chant website... One day I will set our own version.
    Thanked by 2Kathy M. Jackson Osborn
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,524
    Thank you, Gentlemen!

    Don9of11, thank you for the attachment!

    tomjaw, are these sung in the Ordinariate in any official way, according to books?

    Also, why is the Paris Breviary disliked by some?
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,908
    @Kathy The newer french breviaries offended Dom Prosper Gueranger... he preferred the far older breviaries that had fallen out of use.

    I do not know if anyone uses these Latin hymns they are not easily available... I presume that they may be used by some in France. I do not know why St. JHN translated them he must of thought them worthy of his time. That alone is a reason to use them. I almost never attend any service in English so have no idea what goes on and what they use. I will ask my Ordinariate friends.
    Thanked by 1Kathy
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,486
    ...sung in the Ordinariate...
    Not to my knowledge.
    Thanked by 2tomjaw Kathy
  • FKulash
    Posts: 91
    At St. Paul in Cambridge, MA, we sing the attached paraphrase of Psalm 78.1-6 after Vespers for Doctors.

    Give_Ear.pdf
    30K
    Thanked by 1Kathy
  • Don9of11Don9of11
    Posts: 803
    Kathy, if you need my list sorted in a different way like "by Saint's Name" I can easily do this or you can pm and I can provide you with the excell file and you can sort to your hearts content...LOL
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,908
    The Common hymns for Doctors can be found here, https://societyofstbede.wordpress.com/cantus-varii-common-hymns-and-sequences/
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • 98michael45
    Posts: 1
    Divine Worship: Daily Office (North American Edition) has in its common of Doctors the Mattins hymn, Vox success Deo and the Evensong hymn O qui perpetuus nos. Both hymns are listed as having the meter 66.66.66.8. I don't know the provenance of these hymns and nor can I find tunes for this meter in any of my hymnals. (One short falling of DW:DO is that there is no music indicated for the hymns, not even a tune recommended.)
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 3,212
    We'll be doing Praise to the Holiest in the Height for All Saints in honor of Newman, and we'll be doing Lead Kindly Light (SANDON) later in November. I can't see how the former is inappropriate; obviously, using the former works more flexibly year-round, but knowing the latter seems essential now.
  • SponsaChristi
    Posts: 606
    We'll be doing Praise to the Holiest in the Height for All Saints in honor of Newman

    There’s a great festive/solemn SATB, descant, organ, and optional brass quartet arrangement of this by Andrew Wright on OCP. You can hear it here along with the arrangement score: https://youtu.be/Mr6E_iHftqA?si=hD2ZL7fAEvP6k9oq

    It’s apparently quite popular as a processional hymn for Holy Thursday since it introduces the themes of not only Holy Thursday, but of the Triduum and the story of Salvation. Our music director bought several copies of it for our Latin Mass choir to sing on Lætare Sunday, but then COVID happened and caboched that. Now it’s in the new hymnal, so I’m tempted to suggest we use it for our Holy Thursday processional hymn.
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,627
    98michael45
    FWIW
    https://hymnary.org/tune/o_qui_perpetuus
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