• Aboriginals in North America
  • Beast Literature
  • Canadiana.1
  • Dances & Music
  • Europe: Ukraine & Russia
  • Fables and Fairy Tales
  • Fables by Jean de La Fontaine
  • Feasts & Liturgy
  • Great Books Online
  • La Princesse de Clèves
  • Middle East
  • Molière
  • Nominations
  • Posts on Love Celebrated
  • Posts on the United States
  • The Art and Music of Russia
  • The French Revolution & Napoleon Bonaparte
  • Voyageurs Posts
  • Canadiana.2

Micheline's Blog

~ Art, music, books, history & current events

Micheline's Blog

Daily Archives: November 19, 2011

Canonical Hours or the Divine Office

19 Saturday Nov 2011

Posted by michelinewalker in Gregorian Chant, Liturgy

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Benedictine Monks, Canonical Hours, Divine Office, Gregorian chant, Hendrik Vanden Abeele, Liber Usualis, Psallentes, Saint Benedict of Nursia

Benedict of Nursia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the Rule of Benedict, Benedict of Nursia (c. 480 – 543 or 547) stated that, “As the prophet saith:”

Seven times a day I have given praise to Thee” (Ps 118[119]: 164), this sacred sevenfold number will be fulfilled by us in this wise if we perform the duties of our service at the time of Laud, Prime, Tierce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline; because it was of these day hours that he had said: “Seven times a day I have given praise to Thee” (Ps 118[119]: 164). For the same prophet saith of the night watches: “At midnight I arose to confess to Thee” (Ps118[119]:62 )[i]

Benedict of Nursia is considered the father of medieval monasticism and, during the above-named Canonical Hours, Cenobite Benedictine Monks (monks who lived under the rule of an abbey) sung psalms using Gregorian chant. Gregorian chant is named after Pope Gregory I (c. 540 – 12 March 604), but it was not fully codified until the monks of Solesmes undertook this task, in the nineteenth-century.

The monastery at Solesmes, France, had been lost to civilians during the French Revolution (1789 – c. 1794). It was restored and the liturgical Gregorian chants, now contained in the Liber usualis, were edited. However, Gregorian chant had nevertheless been used since the eight century. In the Rule of Benedict (XIX), Benedict writes: “Sing ye wisely” (Ps 46[47]:8). In Chapter IX of his Rule, we find a reference to a “cantor,”[ii] a Judaic term.

The Liber Usualis as Book of Hours

In other words, the Benedictine’s Book of Hours is the above-mentioned Liber Usualis, a compendium of liturgical Gregorian chants, first edited in 1896 by Solesmes abbot Dom André Mocquereau (1849–1930). The Canonical Hours are also called the Divine Office and Liturgy of the Hours.

Here are the Canonical Hours still observed by Benedictine monks. Benedict added an eight hour to the prophet’s seven:

  • Matins (during the night, at midnight with some), sometimes referred to as Vigils or Nocturns, or in monastic usage the Night Office; in the Breviary of Paul VI it has been replaced by the Office of Readings
  • Lauds or Dawn Prayer (at Dawn, or 3 a.m.)
  • Prime or Early Morning Prayer (First Hour = approximately 6 a.m.)
  • Terce or Mid-Morning Prayer (Third Hour = approximately 9 a.m.)
  • Sext or Midday Prayer (Sixth Hour = approximately 12 noon)
  • None or Mid-Afternoon Prayer (Ninth Hour = approximately 3 p.m.)
  • Vespers or Evening Prayer (“at the lighting of the lamps”, generally at 6 p.m.)
  • Compline or Night Prayer (before retiring, generally at 9 p.m.)* 

*in Wikipedia

Gregorian Chant

Incipit of the standard Gregorian chant setting
of the Asperges, from the Liber Usualis.

Although it is a Book of Hours, the Liber Usualis is not an illuminated manuscript, except for historiated initials. Despite a motivation, by the monks of Solesmes, to revive Benedictine monasticism, it is a modern book of Gregorian Chant. However, in the wake of its publication, a Motu Propio (letter from the Pope) for the reform of Church music was issued by pope Pius X (22 November 1903), approving of the Liber Usualis. It should also be noted that the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (opened by Pope John XXIII in 1962) retained Gregorian chant (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 116). So, although Monks now use the Liber Usualis, Gregorian chant has never fallen into obsolescence.

—ooo—

In earlier posts, I have stated that feasts were celebrated during solstices and equinoctial points and that consequently the transition between “paganism” and Christianity had not been abrupt. Similarly, Benedictine Hours are related to solstices and equinoxes.

However, the Hours are also rooted in the concept of vigilance. When Christ was taken prisoner by the Romans, he had been betrayed by Judas, his disciples would not keeping vigil with him. Christ was abandoned in the Garden of Gethsemane. Moreover, according to Matthew 27:45-46, when he was dying on the cross, at about the ninth hour Jesus cried, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? (Aramaic): “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Critic Northrop Frye suggests that these words: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” express the very essence of the tragic mode.

a sense of his exclusion, as a divine being, from the society of the Trinity.[iii]

Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

RELATED ARTICLE

  • Mostly Misericords: the Medieval Bestiary (10 November 2014)

Sources and Resources

  • Rule of Saint Benedict (oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2202) (EN)
  • La Règle de Saint Benoît (FR)
  • La Regla de San Benito (SP)
  • Liber usualis (PDF)

[i] See Chapter XVI of the Rule of Saint Benedict.

[ii] Shebbeare, Wilfrid. “Cantor.” The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 7 Dec. 2012.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03306a.htm

[iii] Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1957), p. 36.

O Virgo Splendens (Llibre Vermell de Montserrat) Psallentes live

O Virgo Splendens (Llibre Vermell de Montserrat) Psallentes live www.psallentes.com

LeningradBedeHiRes

© Micheline Walker
19 November 2011
WordPress
The oldest historiated initial known, St Petersburg Bede, 8th century. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
0.000000 0.000000

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Music for the Très Riches Heures and the Book of Kells

19 Saturday Nov 2011

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Music

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

Book of Kells, G. P. Telemann, Hildegard von Bingen, Limbourg brothers, Magnificat, Videos

Hildegard 
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)
Illumination from the Liber Scivias showing Hildegard receiving a vision and dictating to her sribe and secretary
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
 
 

Georg Philipp Telemann (14 March 1681 – 25 June 1767)

I have added a video to my post on the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.  The Duc de Berry’s Très Riches Heures is a Book of Hours, illuminated by the Limbourg brothers.

The music is a Magnificat, a canticle by Georg Philipp Telemann.

 

Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)

Hildegard von Bingen was an eleventh-century woman composer and a Doctor of the Church.  She was canonized on 10 May 2012. Let this be your introduction to her.

DBP_1979_1018_Hildegard_von_Bingen© Micheline Walker
19 November 2011
WordPress

Micheline's Blog

  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Europa

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,507 other subscribers

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Categories

Recent Posts

  • Epiphany 2023
  • Pavarotti sings Schubert’s « Ave Maria »
  • Yves Montand chante “À Bicyclette”
  • Almost ready
  • Bicycles for Migrant Farm Workers
  • Tout Molière.net : parti …
  • Remembering Belaud
  • Monet’s Magpie
  • To Lori Weber: Language Laws in Quebec, 2
  • To Lori Weber: Language Laws

Archives

Calendar

November 2011
M T W T F S S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930  
« Oct   Dec »

Social

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • WordPress.org

micheline.walker@videotron.ca

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker

Social

Social

  • View belaud44’s profile on Facebook
  • View Follow @mouchette_02’s profile on Twitter
  • View Micheline Walker’s profile on LinkedIn
  • View belaud44’s profile on YouTube
  • View Miicheline Walker’s profile on Google+
  • View michelinewalker’s profile on WordPress.org

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker
Follow Micheline's Blog on WordPress.com

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

  • Follow Following
    • Micheline's Blog
    • Join 2,475 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Micheline's Blog
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: