Traditional Latin hymns

  • Thread starter Thread starter phoooiee
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
P

phoooiee

Guest
Hope this posted in the right place…I pray Vespers each evening with my 2 young children and like to teach them Latin hymns/Gregorian chants as part of this prayer (and to help their study of Latin)- however my knowledge of this repertoire is limited and I was hoping to find some suggestions of some of the best hymns suitable for Ordinary Time. Thanks!
 
phoooiee said:
Hope this posted in the right place…I pray Vespers each evening with my 2 young children and like to teach them Latin hymns/Gregorian chants as part of this prayer (and to help their study of Latin)- however my knowledge of this repertoire is limited and I was hoping to find some suggestions of some of the best hymns suitable for Ordinary Time. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Excellent idea! If you are praying the current liturgy of the hours, for the hymns the official collection of hymns for the entire year is the Liber Hymnarius (1983) published by Solesmes.

The first volume of the new Roman Antiphonary is also available from Somesmes: Antiphonale Romanum II. From that you can chant the entire office of Vespers in Latin, for Sundays throughout the year as well as all feasts and solemnities (both first and second Vespers where applicable).

Solesmes also puts out the Monastic Antiphonary. Presently available for all daytime hours in three volumes.

Lastly the Communauté St. Martin in France have published Les Heures Grégoriennes which allows you to chant all hours except the Office of Readings in Latin or French every day of the year. It is truly excellent. PM me if you have questions or need guidance.

These books are available on their websites. I think there may be a US distributor as well.

www.solesmes.com
 
If you are mainly focusing on Vespers, and your kids are not fluent in Latin, then I’d highly recommend this book by Rev. Peter Stravinskas:

Lauds and Vespers

It has the translations for the hymns (and all the other prayers & Psalms). The book Ora Labora recommends has the chant notation to sing, but it is Latin-only.

Finally, you should check out this site if you want to hear the hymns sung:

Liturgia Horarum

What I would do is:
  1. Cue up the hymn on the Liturgia Horarum website and mark the right pages on the L&V book and the Liber Hymnarius book.
  2. Take the Lauds and Vespers book in hand and read the translation through.
  3. Pick up the Liber Hymnarius book and start the LH website recording. When you feel comfortable with the tune, join in.
This way, you know what you are singing and you can sing along with the correct notes. After a few times, you may recognize the hymn and only need the L&V book so you can read the translation as needed.
 
The traditional Latin hymns are so beautiful! Thank you for the links!🙂
 
You could just try it with the almudi site I linked above and just pray the hypertext written on the screen. But if you want notes, you’ll need the Liber Hymnarius. If you want a book, you’ll need the L&V book.

Here’s what I actually do, since I don’t mind praying off my iPhone or iPad:

I downloaded the free app iBreviary Pro Terra Sancta (iPhone version…iPad version) and put the settings on Latin. This is nice because I always have my phone on me and the app has a built-in Ordo that keeps the calendar straight (on the almudi site you have to know which liturgical day of the year it is).

Then I bookmarked the Vatican Radio webpage where they record Lauds, Vespers, and Compline each day.

I’ll open up the iBreviary app and get to the right hour, then double-tap to open Safari and click the Vatican Radio webpage and open the mp3 for the appropriate mp3. It starts playing in the background, so I switch back to iBreviary and pray along. On rare occasions, the antiphons aren’t the same, but the hymns and psalms are right, and that’s what’s important.

Doing it this way does everything in Latin (hymns, antiphons, psalms, and prayers), but it gives you a sense of how you are participating in something bigger than yourself, your parish, or even your country. This is broadcast and prayed all over the world. Very unifying.
 
There is a gentleman from Italy on Youtube with the username vianinigiovanni, and he has posted a large number of videos on how to sing Gregorian chant. I have found his videos very helpful, and he has a very pleasant demeanor. Unfortunately, the explanations are in Italian, but the music examples are very good…
youtube.com/user/vianinigiovanni

There is also another Youtube user named Stephan George who has a large number of antiphons in Gregorian Chant posted. He also includes the notation, so you can follow along.
youtube.com/user/SGeorgeAZ

And one more, just because I like it, even though it’s for Funerals - Fauré’s In Paradisum.
youtube.com/watch?v=lPca88LPARI

Hope this helps.
 
There is an excellent resource that has the recordings of the hymns in Latin from Liturgia Horarum here.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top