Music of the Sarum Office: Downloads

This is the project of The Gregorian Institute of Canada at McMaster University in Canada that I've posted about (somewhere) before - but the site was almost empty in those days. Not anymore; there are dozens of PDF files there now free for the downloading.

Many of these pages seem to be scans. There's a 1531 date on the Kalendar; a note in the Introduction says that:

MUSIC OF THE SARUM OFFICE takes as its basis the text of the Breviarium ad usum Sarum of 1531. Reference is made to the edition of 1879-1886 for clarification and for explanatory notes. The publication of this work commences with the Psalter, the chants of the office for each day of the week followed by the Common of the Saints. This is followed by the Temporale, the chants for the Kalendar of the year and the Sanctorale, or Proper of the Saints. Folio numbers of the original edition appear in the margin. To this text is added the music found in the Antiphonale Sarisburiense (1901-1924), the sources of which stem from the early 13th century. Musical items not available here are made good from other sources such as the Processionale (1502),the Antiphonale (1519-1520) and the Hymnale (1525). The resulting work presented here is thus a Noted Breviary that represents the Use of Sarum in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

Another note:

At present the rubrics appear only in the original latin. Readers may feel the need for English translations of the rubrics. Readers are encouraged to contact the editor regarding errors or omissions, as well as for clarification of matters of style and performance. The web-based publication of this document is intended to facilitate ongoing attention to these issues.

Hmmmm. Being part of the translation into English would be fun, wouldn't it?

Well, there it is - the beginning, anyway.

Ecce Deus

This is the Introit for today, the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (the 8th after Pentecost to you and me, fellow 'Piskies). The text is from Psalm 54:4-5, 1; here's the English translation:

Behold, God is my helper, and the Lord is the upholder of my soul; turn back all the evil against my enemies, destroy them in your fidelity, O Lord, the Protector of my life. Save me, O God, by your name, and render justice unto me in your strength.

A lovely multi-singer version this morning (mp3) from Jogues Chant. (EDIT: Actually, I think this is one person singing on one track laid over several times! Very tricky.) The score is below.

There's another nice version of this at YouTube, but embedding has been disabled. I don't read Dutch, but here's the Google translation of it:

In this video you can see some pictures that relate to the way we celebrate liturgy. Liturgy is celebrated mainly in the abbey church, but sometimes we pull it out in procession, as during the light procession on February 2 the feast of Candlemas, or in the procession on Palm Sunday. The songs you hear are the Latin hymns of the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, from the Roman Gradual. When you first hear Introit (entrance song) "Ecce Deus adiuvat me. Following is the Gradual Si ambulem.

Everyday we sing hymns for the Eucharist in the St. Mass from the Graduale Romanum, the other prayers we sing the Psalms, including in the translation by Ida Gerhardt, Marie van der then said. There are five prayer services and a daily Eucharist. For more information see our website www.olvabdijoosterhout.nl.

Here's the site the link point to. The site says that these are Benedictine Sisters at the Abbey of Our Lady in Oosterhout, Netherlands. They're good singers! (Here's Google Translate so you can see what they've written about themselves.)

Today the instruction to the Choirmaster is what interests me! Here it is, according to the ESV (from the link above):

To the choirmaster: with(A) stringed instruments. A Maskil[a] of David,(B) when the Ziphites went and told Saul, "Is not David hiding among us?"

As you'll see in the notes on the Psalm page, not much is known about these instructions generally, and what they refer to when they introduce a Psalm. Something I'd sure like to find out about! Maybe I can get a grant or something....

But I will make a separate post about this at some point, because I realize I haven't talked about it ever, and I'd like to. Psalms are my favorite form of prayer; they talk about everything there is to say about the soul's relationship with God and the world, as far as I can tell. And they are so mysterious! (Well, I guess that actually follows, in a way, doesn't it?)

Here's Michaelangelo's David, not hidden at all: