How does one chant the Liturgy of the hours?

[DeusSalusNostra]

Hello all!

I wish to chant, with a group, the Liturgy of the Hours, preferably in English for the time being.

For example, here: universalis.com/0/i-readings.htm
This is the “Tenebrae” (The Office of Darkness that is recited during Holy Week) in English for today. I have the Antiphonale in Latin, but it speaks about Week 1, Week 2 and Week 3 or something, so I have a few questions:

1. Do I need Music to chant the LOTH generally, or does one just chant it as if they were chanting a reading or the Gospel?
2. If yes, is there anywhere online that I could find this?
3. Also, if using the Antiphonale Romanum - can someone explain the Weeks 1, 2 and 3 thing? And, does it include seasons, inculding Tenebrae (which is just the Office of Readings during Holy Week I believe)
4. The Antiphonale has the Latin Antiphons for Canticles, but no music or Psalm tones for the Verses; does this mean the cantor or choir just make up their own Psalm Tone?

Thanks for the help, I’m awfully confused and unfortunately only confined to the internet.

God be with you,
Deus, Salus Nostra

 

[John_Lilburne]

You are in Scotland. So I think the official edition there is different to what you are getting from universalis.com.

In Scotland the official edition is a three volume set, The Divine Office, with Grail psalms. Smaller books are available with Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer and Night Prayer. The 2010 Roman Missal has Revised Grail Psalms. So there could be a new edition of books for the Liturgy of the Hours published, or a decision of the Scotland Bishops Conference to allow the Revised Grail Psalms to be used. Perhaps they have already allowed this, I don’t know.

The books of the Divine Office are printed with pointed text, which provides a means of chanting them as a group. I have made a video called “Singing Pointed Psalms” which is at youtube.com/watch?v=ki_Ax-2MZds . (About 8 minutes).

The Liturgy of the Hours includes hymns. Nearly all the tunes are at romanrite.com/hymns.html .

There are lots of tones for singing psalms, here are some examples. The 1969 Simple Gradual Full Music Edition, edited by John Ainslie, with the Grail psalms, has Gelineau tones, Bevenot tones and Murray tones. GIA sell a card with 2010 Conception Abbey Psalm Tones. Their book Lectionary Psalms (G-8151) has the Responsorial Psalms in Gelineau tone and Guimont tone, with the Revised Grail Psalms. St Meinrad psalm tones are freely distributed at saintmeinradmusic.org/downloads/Modal%20Psalm%20Tones%20(Mod).pdf .

 

[Martin15]

The universalis site has its own translations. The grail psalms are used in all of the UK (and I imagine all of the English-speaking world).

There are books such as: amazon.co.uk/Morning-and-Evening-Prayer/dp/0007211333/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364491587&sr=8-1

This is the book I use and it is very good, containing Morning and Evening Prayer for every day, with a section for Night Prayer, a range of hymns for the seasons and the calandar of saints for the UK and Ireland.

For the other hours (and the office of readings) you would need a full breviary, which is either three or four volumes, breaking the year up into the different books (as opposed to breaking the hours up into different books).

All the best

Martin

 

[OraLabora]

Hello all!

I wish to chant, with a group, the Liturgy of the Hours, preferably in English for the time being.

For example, here: universalis.com/0/i-readings.htm
This is the “Tenebrae” (The Office of Darkness that is recited during Holy Week) in English for today. I have the Antiphonale in Latin, but it speaks about Week 1, Week 2 and Week 3 or something, so I have a few questions:

1. Do I need Music to chant the LOTH generally, or does one just chant it as if they were chanting a reading or the Gospel?
2. If yes, is there anywhere online that I could find this?
3. Also, if using the Antiphonale Romanum - can someone explain the Weeks 1, 2 and 3 thing? And, does it include seasons, inculding Tenebrae (which is just the Office of Readings during Holy Week I believe)
4. The Antiphonale has the Latin Antiphons for Canticles, but no music or Psalm tones for the Verses; does this mean the cantor or choir just make up their own Psalm Tone?

Thanks for the help, I’m awfully confused and unfortunately only confined to the internet.

God be with you,
Deus, Salus Nostra

Which Antiphonale Romanum are you planning to use? The pre-Vatican II won’t have much correspondence with the current LOTH.

The only two antiphonaries that I know of to chant the LOTH (with music) are

Les Heures Grégoriennes (all day hours with music for Gregorian chant, Latin/French)

Antiphonale Romanum II (Vespers of all Sundays, feasts and solemnities, Latin only)

There’s also the Mundelein Psalter for chanting the LOTH in English.

Lastly, for hymns only, Liber Hymnarius which includes all the hymns for the LOTH.

Gregorian chant is modal; the modes are made to fit the antiphon. I suspect getting people to chant right out of the gate is going to be a challenge and fitting chant to the vernacular is an even bigger challenge as the chant modes are designed around the accentuation of the Latin words and phrases. Moreover the antiphons are not metered.

Perhaps the easiest would be to master a couple of easy hymns first, and then chant the psalms recto-tono ( in monotone), or in directum. Here’s an online description of the psalm tones and how to psalmody. It’s a bit archaic; in current chant books the finale of Mode III is two accents, not one, for instance.

As you can see it’s not entirely simple, but recto-tono and in directum would be manageable.

As for the psalmody itself there are certain techniques. It can be done alternating between the cantor or the choir, or both sides of the choir. The technique is: if there’s a flex (a verse that is three lines, with the first one marked with a small cross or dagger), there’s a semi-tone or full tone inflection at the end of the verse (depending on mode), and one immediately takes up the next line with a minimal pause (count to 1 in your head before taking up the next line).

Between the two lines of a verse, there should be a pause (count to three in your head before taking up the next line). The next half of the choir takes up the next verse almost immediately after the other half finishes the last line of their verse (count to one).

Best bet is to search YouTube/Vimeo etc. for some examples.