As a Catholic Music director, you will some day be asked to program a sung Evening Prayer. As Vatican II taught, the Liturgy of the Hours “is the very prayer which Christ Himself, together with His body, addresses to the Father” (Sacrosanctum Concilium 84). Planning this program, however, can be overwhelming as many of us don't know where to start. While there are many ways to accomplish this, I want to share the simplest approach I have found. First here's a general outline of Evening Prayer, followed by a step by step explanation:
Opening Verse
Hymn
Psalm with antiphon
Another Psalm with antiphon (or sometimes the same psalm, continued)
A Canticle with antiphon
Scripture Reading
Responsory
Canticle of Mary (Magnificat) with antiphon.
Intercessions
Lord's Prayer
Concluding Prayer
Dismissal/blessing
Optional closing hymn or postlude
Now let's start planning it!
Start with the correct text. Go to the link below and change the final 4 digits of the URL to the date you want. So if you want to do vespers on Tuesday, November 8th, you would change the last 4 digits to 1108 https://divineoffice.org/1101-ep2/?date=20221101 Copy and paste the text into your worship aid. Ebreviary here also has upcoming texts, as well as some that don't fall on a specific date, such as the office of the dead and dedication of a church. Here are 3 templates you can use: 8.5x11 booklet template Legal size Booklet 11x17 Z-fold Here's a PDF of one for reference sake.
Now follow the steps below:
Opening Verse: (O God, come to my assistance) may be spoken. If there is a presider, he should say it. It could be sung "Recto Tono" (on one pitch). But also, here are some notated sung versions:
Hymn: After the opening verse is a hymn. You can change this hymn to any appropriate hymn for the liturgical day/season that your parish knows. There are "official" hymns here (pun intended), by Fr. Weber, which are worth a look. Sing ALL the verses to the hymn, as this IS the liturgical action. (At Mass, hymns usually accompany the liturgical action). Most office hymns end with a "glory be" verse, which is another reason to sing the hymn in its entirety.
Psalms/canticle: There are 2 psalms and a canticle with corresponding antiphons. The antiphons are sung once (or twice) at the beginning and once at the end, like book-ends, not like a responsorial psalm. Ideally these antiphons will have their own melody to set them apart, but you can set them to the psalm tones as well. Personally, I first choose the psalm tone, then write my own antiphon to match intuitively, like so:
Choose a Psalm Tone, such as St. Meinrad Psalm tones. Here are 8 of them:
Here are several in modern notation that you can copy and paste:
If you want accompaniments for the psalm tones, you could use these original Meinrad tones. (Maybe just first and last measure) Here are the organ parts. Although, I find a capella to be easier. Each line is a different length of syllables, so it becomes difficult to accompany. Also, with a capella, I can lower the key to a more comfortable range. When you've chosen your psalm tones, you then have to "point" the text, meaning Italicize the word which changes pitch in each measure, and divide stanzas between Left and Right or Women/Men, cantor/assembly. I divide up the chanting based on where the breaks already are in the psalms, but others will assign one line per side to keep things simple. To point, count back the syllables from the end of the line and mark the syllable that first changes pitch, as seen below. The final note should be a strong syllable. See how it ends on the SPI of spirit, not the IT of spirit. Ending on a weak syllable sounds like a misplaced accentuation. See below:
Reading: Have a lector read this. The reading does not end with "The Word of the Lord."
Responsory: Could be spoken or sung. You can set that to a psalm tone too, and mark them Cantor/all like so:
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