Hymns vs Propers

There’s an interesting argument over at NLM about hymns vs. propers. The “propers” are Scriptural compositions–mostly psalms with other material added in–appointed for Sundays and major feasts through the year that tie into the old one year lectionary cycle. One of the items under discussion is the Anglican Use Gradual, a resource created for the Anglican Use of the Roman Church which uses traditional language translations of the propers set to psalm tones a la Rossini (a set of tunes some would say were used to death before Vatican II and one of the features that gave the Traditional Latin Mass a bad name from a musical perspective…).

I’m ambivalent about the debate myself. The propers are part of the web that wove the various lectionary and Church-Year cycles together, making a harmonious system of Scripture and Tradition that was crucial to spiritual formation for those who lived the liturgies and understood Latin—but meant very little to people outside of intentional liturgical communities. And thus, I really like the point that Gavin makes about the pedagogical and catechetical value of hymns. Most protestant groups, of course, did choose hymns over propers, the best retaining the connections between hymns and liturgical occasions—the worst overlooking them entirely. (Which, to be perfectly honest, is one of my big complaints with the way I’ve seen praise music services done: there’s been a complete disconnect between the music and the experience of the liturgical year. Theoretically it could be done, and done well, but I’ve never experienced it…)

The real value of propers to my mind is that 1) they are primarily Scripture and 2) without fail they stabilize and deepen our understanding of the Church Year. A real complication with using the old propers, however, is the introduction of the three year lectionary which means that if you intend to tie things together, you ought to think about a three year cycle of propers, not just the old one year cycle. This is one of the advantages of the (maligned) By Flowing Waters which offers propers for use by season rather than by occasion and thus is quite useful in a three year cycle. However, this means the connections within each occasion are not as tight as they could be. (But at least they exist thematically…)

At the end of the day, I’d like to do both—use classically conditioned propers with edifying hymnody—but I wonder how hard that would be to pull off…

Advent Notes from the Liber Usualis

I was poking around the Liber thinking Advent thoughts when I came across two things I thought I’d share. The first was a rubric I’d never noticed before, the second a marginal note I’d written in a while back.

• On tune changes: We talked a little while back about whether Office Hymns could be put to any ol’ Long Meter (LM:8 8 8 8 [that is, 8 syllables in each line of the stanza]) tune. Checking over the material under Advent I which is where any broadly seasonal stuff falls I say on p. 317 that the same tune is to be used for all the hymns of the Little Offices through Christmas. The tune indicated is a mode one tune that I know as Verbum Supernum Prodiens. This indicates two things to me:
• In the Liber tradition at least, there is more of a disconnect between tune and text than I thought and
• seasonal tune changes for these unchanging hymn texts are another way that the Seasons of the Church get filtered into the Office pattern which overall has far less seasonal changes than the Mass.
• Name changes: Glancing at the Advent Vesper hymn, the Liber has “Creator alme siderum”; a marginal note I wrote in my Liber a while back indicates “Conditor alme siderum”. The difference is not in meaning—they both mean essentially the same thing, but points to some deeper issues. Notably, the Clementine Butchery when Jesuits from St. Louis Rome corrected the Office Hymns from their original texts to match Renaissance norms on order of the pope. These changes occurred only in the secular use (i.e., the Liber) but not in the monastic uses who wisely (I think) retained the original words. Again, this means two things:
• Medivalists beware!: The Latin texts found in the Liber are not the medieval texts. To find medieval texts, always go back to medieval sources (like the A-S Hymnarium).
• Cross-Referencers beware!: Typical practice in dealing with Latin liturgical sources is to use the incipit—the first few words of the hymn/antiphon/psalm/whatever—to locate the correct text. Because of these Renaissance changes, however, some of the most common hymns no longer share incipits. This has an impact both on medievalists looking for full texts of medieval hymn incipits but it also has an impact on people working from histoprical protestant or hymnal sources. Some of our favorite hymn translating/arranging antiquarians like Blessed John Mason Neale and Blessed Percy refer to the original incipts rather than the more recent ones. Needless to say, changed incipts make computer searches much harder as well; let the researcher take care…

Martinmas

Once again Martinmas has rolled around. It means that a new year is waiting in the wings, ready to get underway. As the signal-day for the old six-week version of Advent, we’re reminded to locate our Year 2 Office materials and to find some decent selections for our Advent hymnody. Yes, some suggestions may even be forth-coming in the next few days as I start casting about myself…

St. Martin is one of the great heroes of Gallican monasticism so this is a good time to recall some of the other monuments from that source and to point you to the famous Life of Martin: these can be conveniently found together in this volume (which happens to be one of my favorites in the whole set…). In addition to the importance of Gallican monasticism, the Life of Martin became a template of sorts that, in conjunction with Athanasius’s Life of Antony, set a pattern for Western hagiography that blossomed in the centuries that followed.

I said a while ago that I would take a break from documenting our ongoing inter-Anglican feud until today. The time off has been good for me. While I may comment on such matters, I don’t see them occupying a whole lot of space here—I’d rather use it for something edifying instead…

Great Find by bls

…well, ok, great if you’re an Anglo-Saxon liturgy geek… (so maybe “invaluable” is a little extreme, but since I don’t have consistent access to Milfull you have no idea how helpful this is to my dissertation.)

bls directs us to the Anglo-Saxon Hymnarium produced by the Surtees Society under the editorship of the Rev. J. Stephenson reprinted as the volume for 1851. (Here’s the alphabetical index if you want to check for any particular hymns. [Important note: this text contains only the Latin and the Old English gloss. It does not contain modern English translations/paraphrases/equivalents.])

What this means is that yes, it contains a transcription of the Durham Hymnal; no, it does not necessarily follow current editorial standards–caveat lector! So, for basic information this is a great reference to have sitting on your hard-drive; for academic citation, go look it up in Milfull first.

This is also helpful and fascinating for those with an interest in the history of the Ritualist/Anglo-Catholic movements. In terms of “what did they know and when did they know it”, this date establishes the available presence of a classical Anglo-Saxon hymn cycle before the first publication of Hymns Ancient and Modern (TOC here) which first appeared in 1861 (in planning since 185 and which included some Anglo-Saxon options in the Sarum Office Hymn list of 1904.

For the Aelfric folk in the crowd, there are some interesting connections between the Durham Hymnal and Aelfric. For instance, I believe that the Hymnal was bound with an edition of Aelfric’s Grammar—which may make the glossing that much more interesting since his grammar included a glossary (a list of Latin words and their Old English equivalents). When the two texts were bound together I cannot answer and should look up… Furthermore, the order of hymns in this hymnal can be compared with the list that Aelfric gives in the Letter to the Monks at Eynsham the temporal cycle of which I mostly reproduced here. IIRC, they are similar but by no means identical (reminding us once again of the inevitable variation in medieval liturgy).

Brief Notes

• Halloween was great! The girls were really cute and M did an amazing job decorating the house. I may post some pictures once I get them out of the camera.
• I had a post brewing on the importance of All Souls—but then the Lutheran Zephyr posted a nice piece that drew on something I wrote a few years ago. No use being a broken record so I’ll just refer you there…
• Life is on rocket rails until the end of the semester; posting will continue to be light.
• Who all will M and I see at the Society of Biblical Literature meeting this year?

Sarum Office Hymns

I took a walk on the wild side of M’s hymnal collection. Poking through them I found a 1904 edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern (which I’m 99% sure was a gift from the Lutheran Zephyr). This was the edition that was roundly mocked at the time of its publication for its attempt to be too “historical.” (IIRC, Percy Dearmer was in on this edition but I don’t see the editors listed.) In the front is a table of “Sarum Office Hymns”; happily, the entire contents of this volume are posted online at Oremus.org. [Update: Or not. It seems some hymns had to be removed for reasons of copyright.]

Here is the list of Office Hymns as they appear in the front of Hymns Ancient & Modern, 2nd Ed., 1904. The hyperlink will take you to where the English text ought to be at Oremus.

Warning: Many of these files no longer exist on the Oremus server. Furthermore, the links that are active will begin playing a midi version of the hymn when you open it.

Table of Ancient English Office Hymns*

Advent
43 Creator of the starry height (Conditor alme siderum) E.**
44 O Word, that goest forth on high (Verbum supernum prodiens) M.
45 Loud rings the warning voice round (Vox clara ecce intonat) L.
34 To Thee before the close of day (Te lucis ante terminum) C.

Christmas
55 O come, Redemeer of the earth (Veni Redemptor gentium) E.
57 O Christ, Redeemer of our race (Christe Redemptor omnium) M.
56 From east to west, from shore to shore (A solis ortu cardine) L. & E.
58 Of the Father’s love begotten (Corde natus ex parentis) C. (York)
67 O Saviour of the world, we pray (Salvator mundi Domine) C.

Epiphany
79 Why doth that impious Herod fear (Hostis Herodes impie) E. & M.***
80 The Father’s sole-begotten Son (A Patre unigenitus) L.
67 O Saviour of the world, we pray (Salvator mundi Domine) C.

From the Epiphany to Lent
2 O splendor of God’s glory bright (Splendor paternae gloriae) L.
15 O blest Creator of the light (Lucis Creator optime) E.
34 To Thee before the close of day (Te lucis ante terminum) C.

[Before Septuagesima
89 Alleluia, song of sweetness (Alleluia, dulce carmen) (Anglo-Saxon Hymnals)]

The first fortnight of Lent
92 By precepts taught of ages past (Ex more docti mystico) E.
93 O Thou Who dost to man accord (Summi largitor praemii) (8.8.7 D) M.
94 O merciful Creator, hear (Audi, benigne Conditor) L.
105 O Christ Who art the Light and Day (Christe, qui lux es et dies) C.

The second fortnight of Lent
95 Lo! now is our accepted day (Ecce tempus idoneum) E.
96 It is the glory of this fast (Clarum decus ieiunii) M.
97 O Jesu, Thou didst concecrate (Jesu quadragenariae) (CM) L.
105 O Christ Who art the Light and Day (Christe, qui lux es et dies) C.

From Passion Sunday**** to the Wednesday before Easter
106 The Royal banners forward go (Vexilla regis prodeunt) E.
107 Sing, my tongue, the glorius battle (Pange lingua gloriosi praelium certaminis) M. & L.
108 Servant of God, remember (Cultor Dei, memento) C.

Eastertide
141 Up, new Jerusalem, and sing (Chorus novae Jerusalem) E.
142 Light’s glittering morn bedecks the sky (Aurora lucis rutilat) M. & L.*****
143 The Lamb’s high banquet call’d to share (Ad cenam Agni providi) E.
145 O Christ, the heav’ns’ Eternal King (Rex sempiterne caelitum) (Anglo-Saxon Hymnals)
163 Jesu, the world’s redeeming Lord (Jesu Salvator saeculi) C.

Ascensiontide
167 O Thou, Eternal King most High (Aeterne rex altissime) E. & M.
168 O Christ, our Joy, gone up on high (Tu, Christe, nostrum gaudium) L.
176 Jesu, our Hope, our heart’s Desire (Jesu nostra redemptio) (CM) C.

Whitsuntide
178 Now Christ above the starry floor (Iam Christus astra ascenderat) E. & M.
179 O joy! because the circling year (Beata nobis guadia) E.
67 O Saviour of the world, we pray (Salvator mundi Domine) C.

Trinity Sunday
188 Be near us, Holy Trinity (Adesto, sancta Trinitas) E. & M.
189 Father most Holy, merciful and loving (O Pater sancte) L.
190 All hail, adored Trinity (Ave colenda Trinitas) (Anglo-Saxon Hymnals)

From Trinity to Advent
15 O blest Creator of the light (Lucis Creator optime) E.
36 O Trinity, most blessed Light (O lux beata Trinitas) E. (Saturday)
34 To Thee before the close of day (Te lucis ante terminum) C.

There are sanctoral propers after this point—I’ll add them later as I have the chance.

* Unless it is otherwise specified, the Hymns represent the Sarum use, and are translated in their original metres.
** The initials represent the Ancient Services of Evensong, Mattins, Lauds, and Compline.
*** My note: IIRC, this is an abcedarian hymn by Sedulius and only part of it is contained here.
**** My note: Passion Sunday is the Sunday before Palm Sunday in the old kalendar.
***** My note: This hymn is split into three parts suggesting some were sung for Mattins, the rest was sung for Lauds.

Breviary Hymns

I’ve had some thoughts on breviary hymns running around in my head the past few days. I’m teaching a class on the Church Year right now, so these issues are towards the front of my brain…

Anciently, hymns were something that appeared in the Daily Office—not in the Mass. Therefore they had a different dynamic than how we currently experience them. In our current church practice we would be shocked if a hymn that we had sung earlier in the season reappeared in that same season unless, perhaps, a hymn paraphrase were being used to replace a standard part of the liturgy like the Gloria. So—repetition is not a big part of our current understanding of hymns. Classically, however, repetition was the name of the game. The Little Hours of the Office—Prime, Terce, Sext, None, and Compline—use the same hymns every day. (The exception is Compline—in some Benedictine systems there was a different Compline hymn for the Winter and Summer halves of the year.) The hymns of the major hours—Vigils, Lauds, and Vespers—changed to fit the season or the observance.

At Lauds and Vespers in particular, the hymn was the largest primary element that changed with the season. Overall, the structure of the Office doesn’t change with the change of seasons as the Mass does; we don’t drop out elements of the Office in the way that the Mass drops the Gloria or formerly moved to a Tract instead of a Gradual. Thus, the hymn became the central element in the Office that gave depth and character to the season. In fact, it’s a discursive transitional point that moves us into the depth of the season. Remember, the traditional Roman patterns for Lauds and Vespers begin with the same essential structure:

1. opening versicles,
2. psalmody—typically five psalms although that can get calculated in a variety of ways,
3. the little chapter—a verse or two usually from Scripture that also changes with the season,
4. the hymn with an attendant versicle and response, and
5. the gospel canticle—the Benedictus (Song of Zechariah) at Lauds and the Magnificat (Song of Mary) at Vespers.

In terms of flow, these hours begin with the Old Testament prophecy (as the Church understands the Psalms) that repeats weekly through the year. Then, the little chapter gives you a passage to focus on that relates integrally to the season. Then the hymn clarifies what the little chapter has only hinted at. The text of the hymn lays out a tapestry of biblical citations, allusions, images, and doctrinal understandings to give you a big-picture view of the themes and concepts of the season. As you sing through it, the hymn invites you to discover the presence of these themes and concepts in the psalms that you’ve just completed. As the hymn draws to a close, you now have a body of prophecy experienced through a particular hermeneutical lens that has highlighted certain theological facets that lay latent in the psalms until they were brought to your attention by the direction of the hymn. Now moving into the Gospel Canticle—the hour’s major turn into the New Testament—the newly highlighted prophecies from the Old Testament give a depth and context for the canticles’ discussion of God’s faithful fulfillment of his promises.

Thus, the hymns operated as the hermeneutical lenses par excellence for the season. They taught the themes and concepts, identified key doctrines and more than that helped these images, themes, and doctrines become apparent in Holy Scripture. Because of their daily repetition, the whole Psalter was scanned with these liturgical lenses multiple times, enabling the praise of God to lead into contemplation of the mysteries of redemption hidden in the Scriptures.

One of the praiseworthy features of the ‘82 Hymnal is that it has retained many of these classical breviary hymns. Many, in fact, appear twice using the same translation set to two different melodies: a plainchant tune and a later musical form. In our recovery of the Daily Office, these hymns are an invaluable asset to growing deeper into the meaning of the seasons.

The placement of the hymn in the Office has changed—following the rubrics of the ‘79 BCP, the hymn now goes at the end of the Office. The prayers separate it from the psalmody and from the two lessons. As a result, using the hymn as a hermeneutical lens for finding the seasonally-connected mysteries of redemption in the Scriptures has to be a more self-conscious process—not impossible, of course, but just not as natural as in the past. It is, however, a process that we would do well to cultivate. As we head towards a new liturgical year and its seasons, I’d encourage you to look into the breviary hymns for the upcoming seasons and, even if you don’t use them daily, at least keep them within your Office rotation to keep contact with the classical meanings of our seasons.

A simplified listing of the breviary hymns from the post-Tridentine era can be found on the second page of this document (Anglo-Catholic Style Daily Office), including numbers for hymns that appear in the ‘82 Hymnal. A tenth-century English Benedictine list appears here. At some point in the future I may consolidate these for ease of reference (perhaps in connection with scanning the Office Hymns used by the Order of Julian of Norwich) but time currently does not permit.

Random Items

Extreme busyness continues–I need to catch up on emails but haven’t had a chance…

• Don’t miss Heavenfield’s introduction to St. Adomnan. I do wonder a little how far I’d want to push the lawyer thing. What would seal the case for me (so to speak…) would be a clear presentation of how the three books of the Life of Columba fit into the categories of stasis theory—the “official” lawyerly way of arguing according to period texts like Cicero, the ps-Ciceronean Rhetorica ad Herennium, and Quintillian.
• LP’s got a new call! I’m happy for him—and worried at the same time. This will be a huge challenge both professionally and in juggling a growing family. Many prayers for Mrs. LP too!
• Continued prayers are requested for M’s job search, of course…
• bls has an article on a renewed push on Confession.
• NLM has some links that clarify the place of music in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass that are helpful for both students of the liturgy and current practicing church musicians.
• Great question from bls on Why Saturdays on the Ember Days. Wednesdays and Fridays were traditional fast days for Christians going back to the Didache. So why Saturdays? Good question… My most recent thought on the matter is that I read an expectation in the fifth through eighth centuries that Western Christians would be at mass on those days. My logic is based on what we see in the lectionaries—proper Gospels are ideally provided for Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. I say “ideally” because the manuscript evidence is mixed. Sometimes all three ferial days are provided, sometimes only the Wednesdays and Fridays. For instance here’s a page where the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany has a reading for Sunday (EBD V), Wednesday (FR IIII), Friday (FR V), and Saturday (FR VI) But the following two weeks only have readings for Wednesday and Friday. Very fascinating is this page from the same lectionary for the time after Pentecost where there are blank spaces for the ferial Gospels under the appointed Gospels for the Sunday. The scribe knows that these readings *ought* to be there—but he seems not to have the readings… There was a major push to fill all of this in that only hits English lectionaries in the tenth century or later (Lenker’s Type 3 alt.). I’m not sure what happens to these ferial readings after this point…

New Post at the Cafe

It’s on the Ember Days.

Notes

• Today’s the first of the Fall Ember Days. More on this later.
• It’s also the feast of Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury
• Yesterday was the Day of Decadent Dessert. As some of you know, cooking ranks high among our hobbies in the haligweorc household; M is, among other things, an incredible baker. Yesterday I got to taste the fruits of her latest brownie recipe that she had located somewhere. It was nothing short of amazing. I didn’t know something without hydrogenated vegetable oil and high fructose corn syrup could taste that good. Then, she made one of her famous apple pies. You couldn’t have asked for a better crust. She insists that the filling recipe needs to be tweaked a bit to get the spice mixture right, and I’ve heroically offered my services in testing just as many pies as she wants to make…
• Fr. Marshall Scott has a great piece on blogs and blog commenting at the Cafe today.
• Holy crap–what happened to my blogroll!? I know I had more people than that on it. I hope this is just a temporary WordPress glitch… [it seems to have been]
• Lutheran Chik reminds us that today is, in fact, International Talk Like a Pirate Day. [Lil' G will be thrilled. She's already informed me that I will be a pirate for Halloween...]