Does anyone know if there’s an English translation of the chant “Salva Nos, Domine” (Protect Us, Lord) antiphon available—preferably notated in modern notation?
This book, Fr. Weber's The Office of Compline, has a square-note setting in English next to the Latin. It's the one I sing with my kids, when we say Night Prayer.
Urgh mixing stemless and stems like that is awkward, the translation is off (basically the clauses are switched around), and then starting the repetition on a quarter note is awkward.
Take the gregorian melody and compose a translation so that it mostly fits under the notes - that's a practice very common in early vernacular plainchant.
A couple of possible tweaks: 2nd phrase, why not "watch over us as we slumber", which would match the Latin syllables and keep the two single notes from being turned into a neum? The 2-note neum on "we" in the first phrase would still work, too: Lord(jk) as(j) we (ji) stay(hi) a(h)wake,(g) "Ut vigilemus cum Christo" could be "that waking, we keep watch with Christ" - again, matching the syllables.
Oh ... makes sense! Silly me not to think of that... my insular trad-brain that grew up on Latin Compline forgets that there have to be official translations out there. Thank you for sharing this one!
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