Your Office Is Calling: Learning The Do

[CountrySteve21]

Before I became a trad I used the Solesmes books for Office, and their Graduale for Mass if it was being done properly (yea, I'm a snob and say it's not being done properly if it's not Gregorian or Palestrina) and I was singing.

 

These days if I sing the Office I use the Antiphonale that Solesmes published in 1934, but it's not often that I'm able to: on my own I use the Diurnal or Breviary, and if there's Vespers at church then they use the Romanum, not Monasticum, and there are slightly differences. If I'm singing at Mass then I just grab one of the Graduales from church, and they seemed to get published by various places.

 

I will say, though, that it's easier to get Vespers up and running, sung or no, with the newer LOTH than the old pattern. You just get a group, hand them out books or booklets or whatever, make sure there's at least one person on each side who knows what's going on and whom everyone else can follow, and away you go! The rubrics are a little more involved with the older books.

 

Can't go wrong with the Benedictine Office! I wish there was one set to the OF calendar (nothing against the EF Mass/Office, I love them dearly, just can't attend the EF regularly) 

[puellapaschalis]

There is though - that's what the Solesmes houses use (the ones that have the NO, I mean). You'd need those three books I mentioned upthread, the Congregation's Ordo, and a bit of patience. A Novice Mistress/Master helps ;)

[marigold]

Do any of you sing when you pray the offices privately?
If so, are there standard melodies (e.g. in Gregorian chant) and if so, how did you find them, learn them, etc.? Are they similar to things you would sing in church during mass?
If not, how do you choose what melodies to use? Are there guidelines or is it a free for all?

*liturgical music spree*

PP I already read your remarks about singing - would love to read more. (Basically you can't go wrong for me today because you said Torygraph.)

[puellapaschalis]

Do any of you sing when you pray the offices privately?
If so, are there standard melodies (e.g. in Gregorian chant) and if so, how did you find them, learn them, etc.? Are they similar to things you would sing in church during mass?
If not, how do you choose what melodies to use? Are there guidelines or is it a free for all?

*liturgical music spree*

PP I already read your remarks about singing - would love to read more. (Basically you can't go wrong for me today because you said Torygraph.)

 

You flatter me, marigold....

For the psalms, there are various modes - chanting patterns - a psalm can be sung to. There are eight, but many have slight variations in the endings so there are a few more than that. Attached is the pdf I use as a crib sheet; I originally found it on the musica sacra website here.

 

Which tone you chant a psalm to depends on the antiphon that accompanies the psalm at that moment. If the melody of the antiphon is in mode I, the psalm will be chanted in mode I, &c. The antiphons are found in the books, and the age of the melodies ranges: could be 8th century, could be the 1950s. 

 

Hymns have their own melodies. Chapters (short readings) are chanted to a simple pattern, as are the collects. The openings and endings have their own simple melodies that you memorise after having done it about twice.

 

It's tricky to do it all fully, especially if you're on your own. Singing everything on a very simple recitation tone is fine. Singing is good.

[CountrySteve21]

Do any of you sing when you pray the offices privately?
If so, are there standard melodies (e.g. in Gregorian chant) and if so, how did you find them, learn them, etc.? Are they similar to things you would sing in church during mass?
If not, how do you choose what melodies to use? Are there guidelines or is it a free for all?

*liturgical music spree*

PP I already read your remarks about singing - would love to read more. (Basically you can't go wrong for me today because you said Torygraph.)

 

I usually chant Matins recto tono.  Lauds I chant using Gregorian chant  and sometimes Vespers. There is the Mundelein Psalter which gives simply Psalm tones. Though English chant is beautiful, it still can't compare to the Latin! I remember reading something from a carthusian monk about the reasons why they still observe choir rubrics and chant when praying in private. The reason is simple; the rubrics and chant are not for the congregation, its for God. Rather we are in community or private, the Opus Dei should be prayed with as much reverence as possible.

 

 

Pax