Litaniae Pretiosissimi Sanguinis Jesu
  • aldrich
    Posts: 230
    Help!

    Does anyone have a chant setting of the Litany of the Most Precious Blood?
  • expeditus1
    Posts: 483
    Was going to enter the exact same question until I saw your post dating from a week ago. Since the Litany of the Most Precious Blood has a 1960 date of Papal authorization, was there a pre-existing Chant form?
  • aldrich
    Posts: 230
    It was mentioned in one blog. However, the mention sad stated that the blogger's copy cannot be found. So I think there is a chant form, as did the Litany of the Holy Name. I've made a setting but a thought an official chant is more fitting.
  • Chrism
    Posts: 868
    Try contacting music directors and archivists of the various orders and houses still devoted to the Precious Blood. If you find something, by all means post it here.
  • Hugh
    Posts: 198
    I haven't located one either, but we need one for our Christus Rex Pilgrimage coming up at the end of this month, so I've had to compose one myself.

    You're welcome to it.
    Thanked by 1kenstb
  • aldrich
    Posts: 230
    Here is my own setting for the Litany.
    Thanked by 1kenstb
  • Chrism
    Posts: 868
    Aldrich, beautiful.
  • aldrich
    Posts: 230
    Oh, thank you, I was rather apprehensive about posting my compositions here. I and my friend have composed a special "Litany against the persecutors of the Church" for our private recitation. I thought once of posting it here, but decided against the impulse. I hope this little contribution (Litany of the Precious Blood) may find its place somewhere in the Catholic world.
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    .
  • expeditus1
    Posts: 483
    Deleted own comment.
  • expeditus1
    Posts: 483
    Comment deleted.
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    For this July...
  • aldrich
    Posts: 230
    When can we finally get hold of the tone of this Litany? We in my schola will probably be using my composition (the second .pdf) come 1 July, which mercifully falls on a Sunday this year.
  • expeditus1
    Posts: 483
    I want to make sure that proper credit is given to aldrich. My setting of the litany, posted above by Ben Yanke, includes the Versicle, Response, and Oremus sections taken from aldrich's .pdf above.
  • aldrich
    Posts: 230
    It's actually nothing, expeditus. I do not own intellectual rights over those parts, as I have said in my message to you. They are in the ancient simple tone, a modulation which part of our sacromusical patrimony. It's our common heritage. So use it with all gusto.
    Thanked by 1expeditus1
  • At Low Mass today we chanted the Precious Blood hymn from II Vespers, Festivis resonet. It is haunting, and the translation in Mass and Vespers does not come close to doing it justice.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • expeditus1
    Posts: 483
    Our women's schola and children's choir combined to sing a High Mass yesterday for the Feast of the Precious Blood. Thank you to all of those who answered my requests for the Litany of the Precious Blood, provided the accompaniment for "Salvete Christi Vulnera" ( Pedro d'Aquino), and posted the "Ira Justa Conditoris" chant (poster Ben Bruggink). Our choir was also able to incorporate the "Festivis Resonent" chant which Patricia Cecilia mentioned above. I agree that the translation is a catechism lesson in itself, as are the translations of "Salvete Christi Vulnera" and "Ira Justa Conditoris." You bloggers at Musica Sacra Forum really came through for us! The resources at Corpus Christi Watershed were invaluable, as well: Kevin Allen's "Ave Sacer Christi Sanguis" motet, and the NOH Proper accompaniments.

    We sang in a sweltering choir loft, and it was a glorious Mass!
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • JonathanKKJonathanKK
    Posts: 542
    I also would like to get hold of an "official" chant version of this litany, and this seems the place to ask: has anyone found it yet?

    Does anyone know if one exists?

    Does anyone know that it doesn't exist?
  • expeditus1
    Posts: 483
    JonathanKK, back in 2011, I had contacted the Prior of the diocesan Benedictine order in Tulsa, OK, and was informed that the Litaniae Pretiosissimi Sanguinis was in the possession of a group of Benedictine nuns at the following address:

    Abbaye Mont-de-la-Redemption
    300 boulevard Paquette
    Mont-Laurier, QC Canada J9L IL9

    benedictines@tlb.sympatico.ca

    Unfortunately, I had no luck in getting a response from them, having tried both standard mail and email (both in English, not French). Another forum member whom I gave this info to, was going to have an acquaintance make a visit, in-person, but I never heard whether this was successful or not.

    So, in answer to your question, there is reason to believe that an "official" chant version does exist.
    Thanked by 1JonathanKK
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    The Benedictine nuns in Mont-Laurier moved to Saint-Hyacinthe in October 2011, due to the small size of their community and lack of new vocations; they reside in (part of?) the building of the Sisters of Charity there.
    Thanked by 1expeditus1
  • JonathanKKJonathanKK
    Posts: 542
    Folks, the quest continues. Has anyone got any new finds? My current best solution has been to use the last of the tones for the Litany of Loreto (Tonus alter as in the Liber Usualis).

    I need help to identify the source of the attached version. It is in an undated/unmarked booklet entitled "The Healing Service and The Holy Hour - In the Eucharistic Presence of our Lord Jesus Christ".

    As for the booklet, WorldCat has one in a library in Dayton, Ohio: https://www.worldcat.org/title/healing-service-and-the-holy-hour-in-the-eucharistic-presence-of-our-lord-jesus-christ/oclc/62232573&referer=brief_results

    I also found the text of the healing service on a random website: http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/ben/heal.html

    The other litanies in the booklet are as follows:
    Litany of the Sacred Heart (mode 1 melody)
    Litany of the Holy Name (mode 3 melody, as in Cantuale Romano Seraphicum 1951)
    Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary (first tone as in the Liber Usualis, with a clef typo)
    Litany of St. Joseph (as in the Liber Usualis)

    The tone itself seems stylistically uncharacteristic in some aspects: cadencing of the initial invocations on different pitches (and the Christe audi nos doesn't match anything else), and the use of the main body melody for the final Agnus Dei's.

    So...

    Who produced and used the booklet?

    Where did they get this tone for the Litany of the Precious Blood, did they compose it?
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    A schola in the Philippines composed their own melodies for the litany:
    https://cappellagregoriana.wordpress.com/2017/07/02/litany-of-the-precious-blood/
    A copy is available here:
    https://www.stalphonsusbalt.org/devotions/most-precious-blood.pdf
  • JonathanKKJonathanKK
    Posts: 542
    That appears to be the same as the one composed by @aldrich above, but with improved typesetting.
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,704
    Was the Litany of the Precious Blood approved to be used at public devotions? I don't think it was. So finding melodies will be an impossible task, because while such restrictions on public prayers are now mute, the modern Church is now more happy to recite such prayers in the vernacular.

    One place to look would be any Passionist resources.
    Thanked by 1chonak
  • The text of the Litany of the Precious Blood is in my Breviary, but I don't see a melody for it (which, since it's the Breviary, I wouldn't expect).

    Tom,
    Would the text be in the Breviary if were intended that it not be sung?
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,704
    Would the text be in the Breviary if were intended that it not be sung?

    Is it in a section with private prayers? The approved prayers are usually found in Manuals published by the local bishop.
  • JonathanKKJonathanKK
    Posts: 542
    @tomjaw:

    It is the last of the six litanies which are approved for public use.

    See the Acta Apostolicae Sedis from 1960:
    https://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/documents/AAS-52-1960-ocr.pdf#page=412

    Given the date it was promulgated, there is only a small window of time in which chant for it could have been put out.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • Tomjaw,

    It's with the other litanies (such as the Litany of Loreto, and of St. Joseph, both of which have music).
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    It's possible that melodies were composed for it before 1960, when it was used in certain places or certain religious communities.
  • …is there an approved Litany for Corpus Christi, and in which book would I locate this?
  • Dixit_Dominus_44

    I've never seen one. If it exists, it's not in my Breviary.