Author Archives: Derek A. Olsen

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…

Gospel Tone Question

Ok—here’s a call for information. M has pointed Gospels before and has sung lots of Gospels other people have pointed. Yet, she’s not terribly pleased with the spare instructions in the back of the Altar Book or with the modern variants like Grace Newark that seem to tinker with the traditional method.

So, we have the instructions from the Altar Book; we have the examples of the three tones in the Liber Usualis, but we don’t have a clear set of rules for pointing Gospels.

As an example of what I’m thinking of, the St Dunstan’s Plainsong Psalter has a clear and comprehensible set of instructions for chanting the Lessons at MP/EP in Appendix II on pp. 270-275—What’s comparable for Gospels?

Positive Points from a Purple Shirt

Given the behavior of bishops the last few (yeah, ok, 18 hundred or so) years*, it’s always refreshing to see a bishop make some clear, cogent, and thoroughly Christian points. And these are the Canadian Diocese of New Westminster which—as I understand it—is one of the more divided dioceses theologically in the Anglican Church of Canada.

I’ll only editorialize one little bit and that’s to cite James: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (Jam 1:22). It’s important to think these things—but it’s not enough to congratulate yourself for saying you think them; they must be ennacted as well. And that goes as much for the bishop who spoke them as for the rest of us.

1.

Pray for the unity of Christians, for a spirit of charity towards those with whom we may disagree, and for God’s forgiveness of our mutual failure to honour the prayer of Christ in St. John’s Gospel “that they may be one.”

2.

Give particular support to those conservative and traditional Christians who remain with their church and grieve the departure of friends.

3.

Teach our members about the genius of Anglicanism and its balance of Scripture, reason and tradition within the boundaries of common prayer.

4.

Emphasize in our preaching and leadership the centrality of mission and its priority over ecclesiastical politics.

5.

Challenge the false stereotypes that foster polarization – e.g. the ‘heartless conservative’ or the ‘unbiblical liberal.’

6.

Give thanks that our church, for all its messiness, is honestly and openly facing issues some other bodies cannot.

7.

Press forward in ministry and evangelism at the local level.

8.

Deepen our study and immersion in Scripture. Place ourselves under the authority of the Christ it reveals. Avoid both an empty relativism and a harsh literalism.

9.

Encourage both local media and the non-churchgoing public to understand the deeper roots of this development.

10.

Take the ‘long view’ – i.e. remember the consistent triumph of the Gospel over the historic fragmentation of the church, and the persistence of faith through the failures of human discipleship.

Please remember our diocesan and national leaders in your prayers too. And above all, let’s get on with the normal work of being the church.

A big thank you to Lisa from My Manner of Life who posted it and a h/t to the Postulant for linking to it.

* Yes, I believe in bishops. As an Apostolic Succession believer I believe they’re necessary for the fullness of the Church. But I also believe they’re completely human and have ably demonstrated over the centuries their fallibility…

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…

Pullman Loses

Much has been made of Philip Pullman’s antipathy to Christianity and the film The Golden Compass based on his novels has been refered to as “Narnia for atheists.”

After seeing an ad for the film featuring a regal woman assisting the protagonists, Lil’ G turned to me and asked, “Hey Daddy, is Mary in that movie?”

A Bleak Glimpse Forward

Lee directs us to this sobering post on peak-oil, population, and food supply.

From the Rule, Chapter 48: On Manual Labor:

And if the circumstances of the place or their poverty
should require that they themselves
do the work of gathering the harvest,
let them not be discontented;
for then are they truly monastics
when they live by the labor of their hands,
as did our Fathers and the Apostles.
Let all things be done with moderation, however,
for the sake of the faint-hearted.

It seems clear from the passage above and others like it that Benedict envisions his monasteries as self-sufficient as possible. Certainly divisions of labor were well known in the economies of his day as well as later periods—but Benedict praises the manual labor that produces the community’s needs as worthy of true monastics.

In this day and age, I don’t see self-sufficiency as practical or even desirable for most of us, and yet I know there’s more that we can do. M and I have always dreamed of being able to have a big garden where we can grow more of our food than we do. M has been working on identifying locally-grown organic foods for our table.

Benedict has examples scattered through the Rule of what simplicity looked like in his time and place. As we consider our response to our various crises, I keep turning again to consider what “simplicity” can and should mean for us. Not just “consuming green” but re-accenting the motto people of our age grew up with: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

AAR/SBL News

The conference went very well. M and I did most of the things we wanted to: did some exploring of the city (and found this free gallery that has some nice icons and Old Master paintings), enjoyed the whirlpool, had some nice meals without children (though we missed them terribly), and met up with a bunch of folks–like Christopher, Mother Laura, and Anastasia. We took in some sessions as well (including Mother Laura’s paper on Perpetua and Felicity).

And we hit the book room. Restraining ourselves, we left as empty-handed as we came—but the book room was still a joy to behold…

Meet-up Location

If anyone on site is checking in reagard to this… We’ll be meeting at a table in the Cafe which is in the back portion of the Book Room. Bring food; M and I have discovered a good cheap option in the grocery store up two blocks or so on First.

I’ll have a little sign… :-)