I've been receiving a steady stream of inquiries asking about the Ordo for the Benedictine Office coming liturgical year, so thought I would reassure readers that yes, it will be available shortly.
I'm just waiting to see the (hopefully) final printed version of it before making it available in early November.
This year's Ordo
The Ordo will, as usual, provide a full guide to the moving parts of the Benedictine Office, with page references to the Monastic Diurnal and Antiphonale Monasticum (for those who want to sing the Office) for the day hours, as well as cross-references to feasts not included in the 1960 monastic calendar but included in the 1962 Roman; used by particular monasteries (where I've been made aware of them); and specific to selected countries and regions.
I have also added some additional material this year, including:
- an appendix showing the considerable number of feasts included in both the 1960 and 2002 monastic calendars, but whose date of celebration changed. This should be of assistance to those who attend the novus ordo mass on weekdays, and want to say the relevant office of the day (as well as potentially those who are oblates of a monastery using the modern sanctoral cycle);
- references to page numbers in the 1963 breviary for Matins, given the greater availability of the full breviary following the release of the Brignoles reprint;
- cross-references to sources (such as the Brignoles Breviary and the Creek Creek Enchirion) for both older and newer feasts that can be added to the calendar under the terms of the decree Cum Sanctissima;
- improved notes (though not a full ordo) on the pre-1960 Office, so that readers can assess for themselves the merits or otherwise of the various versions of the breviary.
Watch this space for news on availability!
The Brignoles Nocturnale, Volume 1
And while you are waiting for the Ordo to become available, can I also alert you, in case you are not already aware of it, to the forthcoming first volume of the Brignoles Nocturnale.
It has long been a source of scandal, in my view, that there is no published full Nocturnale containing the necessary chants for the monastic Night Office.
The monastic Office, after all, is intended to be sung, not said, or even, I would suggest, chanted recto tono.
Rather, the longer tradition is that it should be sung.
And that is particularly true of Matins, which includes some of the richest chants in the entire repertoire.
Chant books for Matins
There have been books published in the past that have provided some of the necessary chants for Matins - such as books for the Christmas season and Holy Week; a book containing many of the invitatories; and the Liber Responsorialis, which provided the chants for the Commons and a selection of feasts.
But pretty much all of these are long out of print and so hard to obtain, and none of them provide all of the chants necessary to sing Matins in the Benedictine form throughout the year.
The Brignoles project aims to change that.
Volume 1, which provides the psalter section together with the Ordinary for the various liturgical seasons, is therefore a huge milestone in this regard.
Previous psalters
There are, it should be noted, two previous books which provide monastic psalters with some chants for the the ferial Night Office.
The first was put out by Solesmes in 1981, but uses the neo-Vulgate texts for the psalms, doesn't include chants for the hymns or ordinary of seasons, and the antiphons frequently differ to those in the 1963 breviary, rendering it effectively useless for those who use the 1960 calendar and rubrics.
The other is a draft psalter put together by Peter Sandhofe (who published the Nocturnale Romanum) but never adequately proofed or published. The Sandhofe draft was actually a useful step forward, in that it bought together proposed chants for the antiphons and hymns each day. The chants themselves though, clearly needed another round of corrections to the transcriptions and scrutiny of some of the choices made. And the text of the psalms themselves, alas, contained many errors.
This new book, then, which has been carefully road tested, will therefore fill an important gap. Do consider ordering it if you say Matins!
First off, looking forward to the Ordo! I’ll definitely be getting a copy when it is available; I’m sure it will be a valuable resource for someone like me just getting into the Monastic office.
ReplyDeleteAlso, based on your previous recommendation, I have just received the Monastic matins 4 vol set from the Benedictines of Mary. It is quite a beautiful work! Excited to see that the first volume of Matins chants is available for preorder. I have just put in my order to support this work which certainly seems like quite the gaping hole in the space.
In the meantime, whats your recommendation for chanting (or something as close as possible) Matins? I suppose recto tono, and maybe adapting some of the simple responsories/tones?
Appreciate your work and any advice.
I've pre-ordered it and am excited! Most days I pray just the last nocturn of that day's Matins, and the full hour once a week.
ReplyDeleteDo you have any practical advice on waking one's voice up in the morning, or singing alone for a long stretch, as would be required for Matins? The best thought I have is to drink a warm liquid periodically as one sings. It doesn't seem ideal, but I think singing dry alone for a long time early in the morning would be hard!
Looking forward to the ordo! Any chance you could make a more portable form factor? This would be huge for its portability
ReplyDeleteOn how to get started and manage the challenge to your voice, I struggle with this too, so maybe others have suggestions?!.
ReplyDeleteBut for what it is worth, yes, when I sing matins I have a warm drink before starting, and keep a glass of water handy in case I need it.
I'd suggest starting slowly, with recto tono and gradually adding chant (tonus in directum for Psalm 3 is the first step!).
Rather than trying simplified tones for the psalms, I'd just wait for the book to come and start by focusing on the ferial office (learn the antiphons, if necessary use a psalm tone generator available online to help learn the relevant psalms).
But if you are anxious to get started, pretty easy to add things readily available in multiple places such as Te Deum on Sundays.
Another tactic is to get the Neumz ap if you don't already have it. Its good to have anyway, as it has the trad mass chants for each day, plus Lauds and Vespers by the Jouque nuns although no calandar generally follows the trad structure and chants. And its gradually getting more hours from Le Barroux. But in the meantime the Jouques nuns do put some matins chants up, though usually not the psalms. They use a very simplified chant tone for the invitatory on most days - personally I prefer the slightly more elaborate ones in older chant books - but its a possible starting point for learning purposes, and they do seem to use the more traditional invitatory antiphons and more elaborate chants on major feasts (though I haven't systematically checked).
If you want to go further, I've listed out sources for antiphons and responsories etc by feast on by Benedictine Responsory Blog, but its a bit out of date - you can find a lot more on the Nocturnale Romanum Project site, albeit not arranged in the correct order for the Benedictine Office. So you could start by learning one or two responsories and gradually aiming to add more than time (start with the last responsory used most of the year, Duo Seraphim, for example).
Don't sing more than the monks though - I alternate psalm verses with my guardian angel for example.
I find that paradoxically, a higher chant pitch actually seems to preserve the voice better than one that feels more comfortable.
Singing the Office by yourself without the support of others around you though is very hard work, unless you are a monk you aren't bound to say or sing it, and so don't beat yourself up for what you can't manage. Start small and build up. If you are flagging, singing along with the Neumz ap can be a useful boost!
Anon - what do you mean by more portable? I'm certainly open to suggestions but are we talking the pdf or hardcopy? If the later, I did try a smaller summary version in the last couple of years, but it didn't get much traction. If the ebook, let me know what would make it more usable and if lulu supports it, I can have a go!
ReplyDelete