Saturday, October 05, 2013

The Hymns at the Lesser Hours: None


The following are the hymns listed for None, in  Hymn melodies for the whole year, from the Sarum service-books:
Daily throughout the year :
Rerum Deus tenax vigor
(1) On all Double Feasts throughout the year ... ... 9
(2) On the Vigil of Epiphany & on all Sundays &  Simple Feasts throughout the year ... ... ... ... ... 6
(3) On all Ferias throughout the year ... ... ... 7
[At Christmas-tide (York) : Adam vetus quod polluit ... ... 55]

None is the Daily Office prayer said around 3 p.m.  "None" is Latin for "Ninth Hour" - the ninth hour of the day, that is, counting from dawn.  Follow along with the full office here, at Breviary Offices, from Lauds to Compline Inclusive (Society of St. Margaret, Boston, 1885).    I'll link-in via iFrame at the bottom of the post too.

From TPL, here are the Latin words to Rerum Deus tenax vigor, followed by J.M. Neale's English translation; the hymn is attributed to St. Ambrose:
RERUM, Deus, tenax vigor,
immotus in te permanens1,
lucis diurnae tempora
successibus determinans,    

Largire clarum vespere,
quo vita numquam decidat,
sed praemium mortis sacrae
perennis instet gloria.    

Praesta, Pater piissime,
Patrique compar Unice,
cum Spiritu Paraclito
regnans per omne saeculum. Amen.    


O God, creation’s secret force,
Thyself unmoved, all motion’s source,
Who from the morn till evening ray
Through all its changes guid’st the day:

Grant us, when this short life is past,
The glorious evening that shall last;
That, by a holy death attained,
Eternal glory may be gained.

O Father, that we ask be done,
Through Jesus Christ, Thine only Son;
Who, with the Holy Ghost and Thee,
Doth live and reign eternally.

This is the hymn tune used for "all ferias throughout the year":
 

Here's our usual mp3 of this hymn sung to melody #7 from the Liber Hymnarius Wiki; this tune is the same simple melody used at Terce for Nunc sancte nobis Spiritus and at Sext for Rector potens verax Deus on ferias throughout the year, used here at None still again.



Still no sound files for either melody #6 or #9Liber Hymnarius Wiki, though, again offers seven sound files of melodies used for this hymn on different occasions. Again I've posted them here, and again: these may be the same melodies posted for Terce and Sext; that's to be determined .  Meanwhile, feel free to substitute the "in sollemnitatibus" tune for melody #9 (used for Double Feasts throughout the year)  and the "in festis" tune  for melody #6 (used for Simple Feasts throughout the year), or however you want to do it.  
Rerum, Deus, tenax vigor (Ambrosius?)
Meter: 8.8.8.8
Melody: a a a a a a g g
Download in feriis per annum, H.D, p. 194
Download 
in memoriis, H.VIII, p. 194
Download 
in festis, H.VIII, p. 194

Melody: d c d f e d d c
 Download in dominicis per annum, H.II, p. 187

 Download in sollemnitatibus, H.VIII, p. 188

 Download in Adventu, H.IV, p. 8

Melody: d d d c d f e d
 Download in Nativitate, H.II, p. 25

This is G. Vianini's Ambrosian version of the hymn; it's not any of the melodies here, though:




Here's New Advent's entry for Rerum Deus tenax vigor:
The daily hymn for None in the Roman Breviary, comprises (like the hymns for Terce and Sext) only two stanzas of iambic dimeters together with a doxology varying according to the feast or season. As in the hymns for Prime, Sext, and Compline, the theme is found in the steady march of the sun that defines the periods of the day:

Rerum, Deus, tenax vigor
Immotus in te permanens,
Lucis diurnæ tempora
Successibus determinans.

O God, whose power unmoved the whole
Of Nature's vastness doth control,
Who mark'st the day-hours as they run
By steady marches of the sun.


The moral application is, as usual, made in the following stanza:

Largire lumen vespere
Quo vita nusquam decidat, etc.

O grant that in life's eventide
Thy light may e'er with us abide, etc.


The authorship of the hymns for Terce, Sext, and None is now ascribed only very doubtfully to St. Ambrose. They are not given to the saint by the Benedictine editors (see AMBROSIAN HYMNOGRAPHY), but are placed by Biraghi amongst his inni sinceri, since they are found in all the manuscripts of the churches of Milan. Daniel (I, 23: IV, 13, 17) thinks that much longer hymns for the hours were replaced by the present ones. Pimont disagrees with Daniel and argues that the saint may well have composed two sets of hymns for the hours. However, the researches of Blume (1908) show that the primitive Benedictine cycle of hymns, as attested by the Rules of Cæsarius and Aurelian of Arles, did not include these hymns, but assigned for Terce, Sext, and None (for Eastertide) the hymns: "Jam surgit hora tertia", "Jam sexta sensim volvitur", "Ter hora trina volvitur"; the earliest manuscripts of the cycle give for these hours, for the remainder of the year, the hymns: "Certum tenentes ordinem", "Dicamus laudes Domino", "Perfectum trinum numerum"; while other manuscripts give as variants for Lent: "Dei fide qua vivimus", "Meridie orandum est", "Sic ter quaternis trahitur". This Benedictine cycle was replaced throughout Western Christendom by a later one, as shown by Irish and English manuscripts, which give the present hymns for the little hours.


Again, York goes with a different hymn for None in Christmastide; the melody is the same one used at Terce:


Still no sound file for this one.  The hymn itself, Adam vetus quod polluit, is again part of the longer Fortunatus hymn hymn/poem whose first line is "Agnoscat omne saeculum."   This time, the hymn begins with verse 7; I'll go ahead and assume it actually consists of verses 7 and 8 (since those are the last two).  Here again is that entire poem/hymn from this book about the Christmas season by Dom Gueringer
Agnoscat omne saeculum
Vemsse vitae praemium;
Post  hostis asperi jugum
Apparuit redemptio

Esaias quae cecinit
Complete sunt in Virgine
Annuntiavit Angelus
Sanctus replevit Spiritus.

Maria ventre concipit
Verbi fidelis semine:
Quem totus orbis non capit
Portant puellae viscera.

Radix Jesse floruit,
Et Virga fructum edidit;
Foecunda partum protulit,
Et Virgo mater permanet.

Praesepo poni pertulit
Qui lucis auctor exstitit,
am Patre coelos condidit,
Sub Matre pannos induit.

Legem dedit qui saeculo,
Cujus decem praecepta sunt,
Dignando factus est homo
Sub Legis esse vinculo.

Adam vetus quod polluit
Adam novus hoc abluit:
Tumens quod ille dejicit
Humiliimus hie erigit,

Jam nata lux est et salus,
Fugnta nox et victa mora,
Venite gentes, credite,
Deum Maria protulit. Amen.


Let all ages acknowledge  that he is come,
Who is the reward of life.
After mankind had carried the yoke of its cruel enemy
Our Redemption appeared.
What Isaias foretold,
has been fulfilled in the Virgin;
an Angel announced the mystery to her,
and the Holy Ghost filled her by his power.

Mary conceived in her womb,
for she believed in the word that was spoken to her:
the womb of a youthful maid holds Him,
whom the whole earth cannot contain.

The Root of Jesse has given its flower,
and the Branch has borne its fruit:
Mary has given birth to Jesus,
and the Mother is still the spotless Virgin.

He that created the light
suffers himself to be laid in a manger;
He that, with the Father, made the heavens,
is now wrapt by his Mother's hand in swaddling-clothes.

He that gave to the world the ten
commandments of the law, deigns,
by becoming Man, to be
Under the bond of the law.

What the old Adam defiled,
that the new Adam has purified;
and what the first cast down by his pride,
the second raised up again by his humility.

Light and salvation are now born to us,
night is driven away, and death is vanquished:
oh! come, all ye people, believe;
God is born of Mary. Amen.

Here's a peek-in to the SSM Breviary entry for None (spelled "Nones" here):




This is Wikipedia's entry for None; as noted, most of the content comes from the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1917:
None (/ˈnn/ nohn), or the Ninth Hour, is a fixed time of prayer of the Divine Office of almost all the traditional Christian liturgies. It consists mainly of psalms and is said around 3 p.m. Its name comes from Latin and refers to the ninth hour of the day after dawn.

This hour is now described more generally as the "midafternoon prayer" and may be said whenever convenient during the day, or omitted entirely. However, bishops and priests are still expected to recite the full sequence of hours, as closely as possible to the traditional time of day.[1]

Eastern Christian Office

In the Eastern Orthodox and Greek Catholic Churches the office of the Ninth Hour is normally read by a single Reader and has very little variation in it. Three fixed psalms are read at the Third Hour: Psalms 83, 84, and 85 (LXX). The only variable portions for most of the year are the Troparia (either one or two) andKontakion of the Day. The service ends with the Prayer of the Ninth Hour by Saint Basil the Great.

During Great Lent a number of changes in the office take place. On Monday through Thursday, after the three fixed psalms, the Reader says a kathisma from the Psalter. The Troparion of the Day is replaced by special Lenten hymns that are chanted with prostrations. Then a portion of the Ladder of Divine Ascentmay be read. The Kontakion of the Day is replaced by special Lenten troparia. Near the end of the Hour, the Prayer of St. Ephraim is said, with prostrations.

During Holy Week, on Great Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the services are similar to those during Great Lent, except that there is no kathisma, and instead of the normal Lenten hymns which replace the Kontakion, the Kontakion of the day (i.e., that day of Holy Week) is chanted. On Great Thursday and Saturday, the Little Hours are more like normal. On Great Friday, the Royal Hours are chanted.

During the Lesser Lenten seasons (Nativity FastApostles' Fast and Dormition Fast) the Little Hours undergo changes similar to those during Great Lent, except the Lenten hymns are usually read instead of chanted, and there are no kathismata. In addition, on weekdays of the Lesser Fasts, an Inter-Hour (Greek:Mesorion) may be read immediately after each Hour (at least on the first day of the Fast). The Inter-Hours may also be read during Great Lent if there is to be no reading from the Ladder of Divine Ascent at the Little Hours. The Inter-Hours follow the same general outline as the Little Hours, except they are shorter.

Origin of None

The remainder of this article uses the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1917; it describes the office before the reforms of the Second Vatican Council; the numbering system of psalms is that of the Septuagint and they are said in Latin:

According to an Ancient Greek and Roman custom, the day was, like the night, divided into four parts, each consisting of three hours. As the last hour of each division gave its name to the respective quarter of the day, the third division (from noon to about 3) was called the None (Latin nonusnona, ninth).[2] This division of the day was in vogue also among the Jews, from whom the Church borrowed it.[3] The following texts, moreover, favor this view: "Now Peter and John went up into the temple at the ninth hour of prayer" (Acts 3:1); "And Cornelius said: Four days ago, unto this hour, I was praying in my house, at the ninth hour, and behold a man stood before me" (Acts 10:30); "Peter went up to the higher parts of the house to pray, about the sixth hour" (Acts 10:9). The most ancient testimony refers to this custom ofTerceSext, and None, for instance TertullianClement of Alexandria, the Canons of Hippolytus, and even the "Didache ("Teaching of the Apostles"). The last-mentioned prescribed prayer thrice each day, without, however, fixing the hours.[4]

Saint Clement of Alexandria and likewise Tertullian, as early as the end of the 2nd century, expressly mention the Canonical Hours of Terce, Sext, and None, as specially set apart for prayer.[5] Tertullian says explicitly that we must always pray, and that there is no time prescribed for prayer; he adds, nevertheless, these significant words: "As regards the time, there should be no lax observation of certain hours—I mean of those common hours which have long marked the divisions of the day, the third, the sixth, and the ninth, and which we may observe in Scripture to be more solemn than the rest."[6]

Clement and Tertullian in these passages refer only to private prayer at these hours. The Canons of Hippolytus also speak of Terce, Sext, and None, as suitable hours for private prayer; however, on the twostation days, Wednesday and Friday, when the faithful assembled in the church, and perhaps on Sundays, these hours were recited successively in public.[7] St. Cyprian mentions the same hours as having been observed under the Old Law, and adduces reasons for the Christians observing them also.[8] In the 4th century there is evidence to show that the practice had become obligatory, at least for the monks.[9]

The prayer of Prime, at six o'clock in the morning, was not added until a later date, but Vespers goes back to the earliest days. The texts we have cited give no information as to what these prayers consisted of. Evidently they contained the same elements as all other prayers of that time—psalms recited or chanted,canticles or hymns, either privately composed or drawn from Holy Writ, and litanies or prayers properly so-called.

None from the fourth to seventh centuries

The eighteenth cannon of the Council of Laodicea (between 343 and 381) orders that the same prayers be always said at None and Vespers. But it is not clear what meaning is to attached to the words, leitourgia ton euchon, used in the canon. It is likely that reference is made to famous litanies, in which prayer was offered for the catechumens, sinners, the faithful, and generally for all the wants of the Church. Sozomen(in a passage, however, which is not considered very authentic) speaks of three psalms which the monksrecited at None. In any case this number became traditional at an early period.[10] Three psalms were recited at Terce, six at Sext, and nine at None, as St. John Cassian informs us, though he remarks that the most common practice was to recite three psalms at each of these hours[11] St. Ambrose speaks of three hours of prayer, and, if with many critics we attribute to him the three hymns Jam surgit hora tertiaBis ternas horas explicas, and Ter horas trina solvitur, we shall have a new constitutive element of the Little Hours in the 4th century in the Church of Milan.[12]

In the Peregrinatio ad loca sancta of Etheria, (end of 4th century), There is a more detailed description of the Office of None. It resembles that of Sext, and is celebrated in the basilica of the Anastasis. It is composed of psalms and antiphons; then the bishop arrives, enters the grotto of the Resurrection, recites a prayer there, and blesses the faithful.[13] During Lent, None is celebrated in the church of Sion; on Sundays the office is not celebrated; it is omitted also on Holy Saturday, but on Good Friday it is celebrated with special solemnity.[14] But it is only in the succeeding age that we find a complete description of None, as of the other offices of the day.

None in the Roman and other liturgies from the seventh century

In the Rule of St. Benedict the four Little Hours of the day (Prime, Terce, Sext and None) are conceived on the same plan, the formulae alone varying. The Divine Office begins with Deus in adjutorium, like all theCanonical Hours; then follows a hymn, special to None; three psalms, which do not change (Psalm 125, 126, 127), except on Sundays and Mondays when they are replaced by three groups of eight verses from Psalm 118; then the capitulum, a versicle, the Kyrie, the The Lord's Prayer, the oratio, and the concluding prayers.[15]

In the Roman Liturgy the office of None is likewise constructed after the model of the Little Hours of the day; it is composed of the same elements as in the Rule of St. Benedict, with this difference: that instead of the three psalms (125-127), the three groups of eight verses from Psalm 118 are always recited. There is nothing else characteristic of this office in this liturgy. The hymn, which was added later, is the one already in use in the Benedictine Office—Rerum Deus tenax vigor. In the monastic rules prior to the 10th century certain variations are found. Thus in the Rule of Lerins, as in that of St. Caesarius, six psalms are recited at None, as at Terce and Sext, with antiphon, hymn and capitulum.

St. Aurelian follows the same tradition in his Rule Ad virgines, but he imposes twelve psalms at each hour on the monks. St. ColumbanusSt. Fructuosus, and St. Isidore adopt the system of three psalms[16] Like St. Benedict, most of these authors include hymns, the capitulum or short lesson, a versicle, and an oratio.[17] In the 9th and 10th centuries we find some additions made to the Office of None, in particular litanies, collects, etc.[18]

Meaning and symbolism of None

Among the ancients the hour of None was regarded as the close of the day's business and the time for the baths and supper.[19] At an early date mystical reasons for the division of the day were sought. St. Cyprian sees in the hours of Terce, Sext and None, which come after a lapse of three hours, an allusion to the Trinity. He adds that these hours already consecrated to prayer under the Old Dispensation have been sanctified in the New Testament by great mysteries—Terce by the descent of the Holy Spirit on theApostles; Sext by the prayers of St. Peter, the reception of the Gentiles into the Church, or yet again by the crucifixion of Christ; None by the death of Christ.[20] St. Basil merely recalls that it was at the ninth hour that the Apostles Peter and John were wont to go to the Temple to pray.[21] St. John Cassian, who adopts the Cyprian interpretation for Terce and Sext, sees in the Hour of None the descent of Christ intohell.[22] But, as a rule, it is the death of Christ that is commemorated at the Hour of None.

The writers of the Middle Ages have sought for other mystical explanations of the Hour of None.Amalarius of Metz (III, vi) explains at length, how, like the sun which sinks on the horizon at the hour of None, man's spirit tends to lower itself also, he is more open to temptation, and it is the time the demon selects to try him. For the texts of the Fathers on this subject it will suffice to refer the reader to the above-mentioned work of Cardinal Bona (c. ix). The same writers do not fail to remark that the number nine was considered by the ancients an imperfect number, an incomplete number, ten being considered perfection and the complete number. Nine was also the number of mourning. Among the ancients the ninth day was a day of expiation and funeral service—novemdiale sacrum, the origin doubtless of the novena for the dead.

As for the ninth hour, some persons believe that it is the hour at which our first parents were driven from the Garden of Paradise.[23] In conclusion, it is necessary to call attention to a practice which emphasized the Hour of None—it was the hour of fasting. At first, the hour of fasting was prolonged to Vespers, that is to say, food was taken only in the evening or at the end of the day. Mitigation of this rigorous practice was soon introduced. Tertullian's famous pamphlet De jejunio, rails at length against the Psychics (i. e. the orthodox Christians) who end their fast on station days at the Hour of None, while he, Tertullian, claims that he is faithful to the ancient custom. The practice of breaking the fast at None caused that hour to be selected for Mass and Communion, which were the signs of the close of the day. The distinction between the rigorous fast, which was prolonged to Vespers, and the mitigated fast, ending at None, is met with in a large number of ancient documents (see Fasting).


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