Communion Antiphons
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    Is it always the case that one may chant verses from Psalm 34 (I will bless the Lord at all times) after the Communion Antiphon?

    From what I can gather, (using the weber spanish propers for the feast) the Communion antiphon for the Feast of Sts Philip and James has verses from Matthew 11:28 chanted after the antiphon:

    Communion Antiphon:

    Lord, show us the Father, and taht will be enough for us. *
    Whoever has seen me, Philip, has seen the Father also, alleluia.

    Mt 11: 28. 'Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, *
    and I will give you rest.

    Mt 11:29. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, *
    and you will find rest for your souls. 30. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.'

    Or should I just replace the words from Matthew 11 with psalm 34? it does seem to be a rather appropriate text.
  • smvanroodesmvanroode
    Posts: 995
    The Ordo Cantus Missae gives for the Communion antiphon for the Feast of Sts Philip and James (May 3) the following:

    Ad comm. Tanto tempore: ps. 32*, 1. 2. 3. 6. 12. 13. 18

    The Prænotanda adds:

    23. An asterisk attached to a psalm number indicates that the antiphon is not from the psalter and therefore that the psalm is provided as an option. In such a case another psalm may be substituted at will, for example, Ps 33 [34], which by an ancient tradition is used at communion.

    So, instead of singing verses from Psalm 32 [33], you may substitute Psalm 33 [34]. The same applies to the Communion antiphon taken from the Missale Romanum, if it's not taken from the psalter. There are no psalm verses assigned to the Missal antiphons, but it makes sense to apply a similar rule: add verses from the same psalm if the antiphon text is taken from the psalter, or choose verses from any suitable psalm if it's not. In the latter case, the Ordo Cantus Missae suggests texts other than from the psalter only in three instances: Lc. 1 (Beata viscera) and Sap. 3 (Et si coram hominibus and Iustorum animæ). Therefore, the selection of verses from the New Testament given by Fr. Weber doesn't have a clear precedent in the official chant books.

    As the Missal text for the Feast of Sts Philip and James is Jn 14: 8-9, you may add verses of Psalm 33 [34].

    (Note that Fr. Weber uses the text of Mt 11: 28 as antiphon, and Jn 14: 8-9 as one of the two verses!)
    Thanked by 1hartleymartin
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    Thanks, clears things up for me.

    I was aware of the practice of using more verses from the same psalm, bit wanted to be sure that I wasn't making some gross liturgical error when it came to other antiphons.
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    Attached is the Communion Chant for Sts Philip and James.

    I've basically set the antiphon to Mass Tone II and then used Office Tone II for the Psalm verses. I agree with the CMAA's publication of the Communion Antiphons with English Psalm verses in that I think the office tones better suit English than the traditional Mass tones.

    Psalm verses as per the Ordo Cantus Missae, taken from the Revised Grail Psalter.

    Usual Creative Commons Free to use, distribute, etc for this. In reality, there isn't much creative work on my part to copyright anyway.
    Communion Chant.pdf
    143K
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    Today I used "By All Your Saints Still Striving" in place of the Introit, "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence" for the Offertory and the above attached chant for communion, with the seasonal Marian Antiphon for the Recessional and an improvisation on Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus as a postlude.

    "Let all mortal flesh" has its origins as the cherbric offertory hymn from the Liturgy of St James (yes, the same James celebrated today), which is believed to date back as far as the apostolic era (ca. 60 AD). I also happen to like this hymn, so I allocated it to the offertory.

    The Priest also sprung the sprinkling rite on me at the last minute. Deo Gratias, I had a copy of "By Flowing Waters" handy with the relevant music. I used a low D drone and then just played the melody in parallel octaves with an 8' stopped diapason wood and the swell box closed, whilst I sang the words.
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    Of course, I just discovered that the chant I wanted already existed in the SEP corpus. I will use that chant next year.
  • musicman923
    Posts: 239
    The improv on ave verum by Mozart, who composed it? I might use it for Corpus Christi Sunday!
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    I put the manuals-only score in front of me and improvised. Sorry, I don't think I can help you.
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