Hymns in the LOTH

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How do the hymns in the Liturgy of the Hours work? Is there a cycle? If so, how does it go? Is there somewhere (other than the book :)) where I can get the list of hymns in the cycle?

I’m asking because the hymns in the iBreviary and the Divine Office app differ. Why is this?

Thanks so much.
 
JGMendes4049 said:
How do the hymns in the Liturgy of the Hours work? Is there a cycle? If so, how does it go? Is there somewhere (other than the book :)) where I can get the list of hymns in the cycle?

I’m asking because the hymns in the iBreviary and the Divine Office app differ. Why is this?

Thanks so much.
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They differ because there is no specific hymn proscribed for each day.
 
In the actual books that make up the Liturgy of the Hours (the two you listed are not approved versions) a hymn is given for each Morning and Evening Prayer but the person who is leading the prayer (in a communal setting) or the person doing the prayer privately my substitute a hymn from those listed in the back of the book.

If you look at the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours you will see that it says it is a two week cycle. I believe one is free to adapt it to one’s own use, that is using hymns that you know.

In my community there is a set of hymns that we use as we all know them. We do, on occasion, work with our music director to learn new ones so that we have a larger group to chose from.
 
ByzCath said:
In the actual books that make up the Liturgy of the Hours (the two you listed are not approved versions) a hymn is given for each Morning and Evening Prayer but the person who is leading the prayer (in a communal setting) or the person doing the prayer privately my substitute a hymn from those listed in the back of the book.

If you look at the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours you will see that it says it is a two week cycle. I believe one is free to adapt it to one’s own use, that is using hymns that you know.

In my community there is a set of hymns that we use as we all know them. We do, on occasion, work with our music director to learn new ones so that we have a larger group to chose from.
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So you can use whatever hymn you want? For example, something seasonal?
 
JGMendes4049 said:
How do the hymns in the Liturgy of the Hours work? Is there a cycle? If so, how does it go? Is there somewhere (other than the book :)) where I can get the list of hymns in the cycle?

I’m asking because the hymns in the iBreviary and the Divine Office app differ. Why is this?

Thanks so much.
Click to expand...
The Divine Office app uses different hymns than printed book for copyright reasons.

The iBreviary has also started phasing out hymns in the printed book that it does not have copyright authorization for. It has replaced them with hymns from “The Mundalein Psalter”.
 
ByzCath said:
They differ because there is no specific hymn proscribed for each day.
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Well it depends, if you’re praying in Latin, there is Liber Hymnarius which gives the hymns to use. For Ordinary Time there’s a two-week cycle of daily hymns for the major hours (Vigils, Lauds Vespers) and of weekly hymns for the other hours. For the Seasons, there are proper hymns for each Office of each season.

It also contains the hymns for the proper and common of saints, the Te Deum, prolix responsories, monastic propers, etc.
 
OraLabora said:
Well it depends, if you’re praying in Latin, there is Liber Hymnarius which gives the hymns to use. For Ordinary Time there’s a two-week cycle of daily hymns for the major hours (Vigils, Lauds Vespers) and of weekly hymns for the other hours.
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I believe I said as much.
For the Seasons, there are proper hymns for each Office of each season.
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In the English translation options (usually two) are given in the propers.

Also there is a listing of all the hymns in the book broken down to selected ones for each proper and Morning/Evening prayers.
 
Is there a list of all the names of the hymns and tunes in the LOTH cycle? Not the whole music, but the list.
 
I’m glad to hear that we are able to substitute hymns from the LOTH. My wife and I pray the evening, night, or office of readings every day using the Divine Office app/website but neither one of us particularly like the hymns that are chosen most of the time. I would certainly prefer something much more traditional.

I wish I knew of a good source to work from that my wife and I could handle easily.

Peace,
 
To whom it may concern,

For the time being I would recommend you borrow from a university library or purchase either the “St Dunstan’s Hymnal” (modern notation) or “The Hymnal Noted” by John Mason Neale (from lancelotteandrewespress).

The St Ambrose Hymnal is also especially good for the ordinary days of the week hymns in modern notation.
The St Dunstan Hymnal contains most of the festal hymns in modern notation. If you were to have only one, this would be it.

I am creating what amounts to an english language version of the “Liber Hymarius”.
Whether or not it will officially be a precise mimicing of the Liber Hymnarius has not yet been decided. I can not guarantee that every single liber hymnarius hymn will be included, but I can gaurantee that 90% will be included.

I intend to publish it by 2013, and be ready for free downloads by the end of 2012.

I also intend to include in it a psalter with all the Revised Grail Psalms and their ferial (ordinary non-festal) antiphons attached at the back of it. Possibly canticles as well.

I will also including many sequences ment for the mass.

All music will use the same melodies as the Liber Hymnarius with as close a translation as possible in metrical english. This means some degree of paraphrase, but as little as possible.
When the LOTH was translated into English, it was decided that instead of translating the Latin hymns, already existing English hymns would be used that express the same general ideas. If you dedice to take this option, the two suggested hymns for Evening Prayer I of the Immaculate Conception in the ICEL Liturgy of the Hours are “Mary crowned with living light” (75.75.D) to the tune GLORIFCATION, or (curiously enough) the Latin Marian antiphon Salve Regina.
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The irony here is that most of the existing hymns already had english translations available. Once again the old life-long prejudice against anglicans had much to do with it.
Rome just had to do whatever the anglicand did NOT do, even if it was the most Orthodox thing to possibly do.

Most of the most important hymns in the Liturgy of the Hours book are

Thank God, the era of preposterous prejudice toward anglican catholic customs is ending.
Theres nothing wrong with criticizing anglican errors or translation errors, but when they do something right, or far better than you do…to not do it as well would be wrong.
 
Can a layperson doing the Hours in private recitation just dispense with the hymns? I can’t read music, I can’t sing, and when I pray the Hours at home and try to sing, it seems to annoy the dog. I’m not trying to be the least bit funny here! If I don’t sing the hymns in private recitation, is it still valid?
 
odile53 said:
Can a layperson doing the Hours in private recitation just dispense with the hymns? I can’t read music, I can’t sing, and when I pray the Hours at home and try to sing, it seems to annoy the dog. I’m not trying to be the least bit funny here! If I don’t sing the hymns in private recitation, is it still valid?
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You can just recite them, you are not required to sing them. In their Latin form at least, they are written mostly in two poetic forms, either a iambic or sapphic dimeter. So even reciting them will retain somewhat of a musical character. The vernacular hymns unfortunately don’t all follow this structure (and even in Latin there are exceptions), but some octosyllabic verse hymns will fit some of the simpler Gregorian melodies and are a great and simple way to learn chant even for total novices.

Two very simple octosyllabic melodies would be Te Lucis or Nunc Sancte for ordinary week days. You can probably find examples on YouTube. In the vernacular, it doesn’t matter which melody you use.
 
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