Chanting the LOTH

[Joanne_ca]

I’m new to the hours and I am enjoying it very much. I’ve been tying to learn how to chant as I have read that the psalms and hymns should be chanted if possible. I was wondering how many people on this forum chant the LOTH. Also does anyone know where I can get instructions online to learn this.

Thanks

 

[porthos11]

Joanne_ca:

I’m new to the hours and I am enjoying it very much. I’ve been tying to learn how to chant as I have read that the psalms and hymns should be chanted if possible. I was wondering how many people on this forum chant the LOTH. Also does anyone know where I can get instructions online to learn this.

Thanks

You can use one of the eight Gregorian modes. They are pretty simple to sing (although the theory is pretty, well, theoretical). You may find Mode 2 easy.

This works well for the Psalms. Formally, the antiphons have their own (complicated) tones, but I suppose you can just sing the antiphons in the mode tones as well since it’s hard to find the notation for the antiphons.

The Gregorian notation is similar, but not the same as conventional music and you need some familiarity with the symbols (neumes).

For an introduction, you can see this page. Check first “notation” and then “psalmody”. Once you’ve figured the notation, you can try hitting some piano keys to get a feel of the tone.

interletras.com/canticum/Eng/index_tecnic_ENG.html

As for the hymns, you’ll notice that they have a melody and meter (e.g. Old 100th LM; St. Flavian CM; Picardy 87.87). These are the tunes and poetic meters the hymns are sung to. Many of these tunes are available in MIDI format at cyberhymnal.org. There are “Tunes by meter” and “Tunes by name” sections on that site. So if you want to learn a hymn, try searching for the tune by name (e.g. Old 100th) or meter (e.g. LM, CM, 87.87, 10.10.10.11). Don’t search for the title of the hymn. Many of the hymn tunes will be there. If you don’t know the designated melody (and it’s not on Cyberhymnal) but you know another of the same meter, you can sing the hymn to another melody (e.g. St. Flavian instead of some CM tune you don’t know).

Finally, if you can buy a hymnal with mostly traditional hymns, that’s great. And the good news is, if you have the one-volume Christian Prayer by Catholic Book Publishing Co (not Daughters of St. Paul ), the hymns already come with musical notation.

It will take some time, but the hymns and tones will eventually grow on you. Good luck.

 

[Mjohn1453]

I chant the LOTH several days a week. Like the person before said you can chant to the gregorian chant tones. Though this was created for chanting Latin, which has different stressed syllables than English so it won’t fit very well. What we do when we chant the LOTH is we chant to the St. Meinrad Chant tones. The have 8 tones that were created specifically for chanting in English and can be applied to a very diverse array of things you want to chant. These tones are used throughout the country in many religious communities because they are so easy to use.

saintmeinrad.edu

You can order a kit that explains everything for a few dollars at their Scholar Shop. It includes how to chant them, the music for them, and examples. It may not be on their website but if you contact them they can arrange it for you.