Learn the Office 2.14: The short responsories of Lauds and Vespers

What is the short responsory?

There are two types of responsories that are used in the Office - the 'prolix' responsories of Matins, also used at I Vespers of major feasts by some monasteries; and the short responsories (responsoria brevia) of Lauds and Matins.

The key challenge in saying the responsories is that while the form of the short responsory is written out in full for Sunday Lauds (MD 52), after that they are only provided in abbreviated form, so if you want to say Lauds and Vespers you need to learn how the responsory works.

The structure of the responsory

If the normal responsory for Sunday Lauds was summarised the way it usually is in Office books it would look like this:

R Inclina cor meum, Deus, * In testimonia tua. Inclina. V Averte oculos meo ne videant vanittem, in via tua vivifica me. In testimonia. Gloria Patri. Inclina

The red letters are cues to remind you that you need to fill out the text.

In chant books, as the illustration above shows, only the parts with separate chants are normally written out in full.

But from the abbreviated version provided above:

R Inclina cor meum, Deus, * In testimonia tua. Inclina. V Averte oculos meo ne videant vanittem, in via tua vivifica me. In testimonia. Gloria Patri. Inclina

What is actually said is:

Inclina cor meum, Deus, * In testimonia tua.
Inclina cor meum, Deus, * In testimonia tua.
Averte oculos meo ne videant vanittem, in via tua vivifica me.
In testimonia tua.
Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.
Inclina cor meum, Deus, * In testimonia tua.

Saying the responsory

In private recitation, you sing or say the whole thing, including all of the repetitions.  But it actually makes more sense when you think about how it is performed in a monastery.

The Respond

In a monastery, the opening line (respond) is sung by the person leading the Office for the day (hebdomadary), the whole line is then repeated by everybody:

Inclina cor meum, Deus, * In testimonia tua.

The Verse

The person leading the Office then sings the verse:

Averte oculos meos, ne videant vanitatem: in via tua vivifica me.

The respond

Everyone then replies with the second half of the first line:

 In testimonia tua.

The short doxology

Then a short doxology (note that the normal followup verse Et in saecula...is not added) is sung by the person leading:

Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.

The Respond again

Everyone then responds by repeating the whole of the first line (Inclina cor meum...In testimonia..).

Where to find the responsories

The 'default' responsories for Lauds and Vespers for Sundaysand weekdays throughout the year are included in the psalter section of your Office book.

These responsories are, however, often displaced by those for feasts or seasons, found in the 'sanctoral', Commons, or 'temporale' sections of the Office books.

In some cases, such as Octaves of a feast, the Antiphonale Monasticum provides a slightly more elaborate version for use at I Vespers of the feast, and then a ferial version for use throughout the week.

The chants currently employed for the short responsories are very simple, usually employing only around three standard formulas, and so can easily be learnt.

Practice

You can check your understanding of how to read the cues in your Office book by looking at the text for Lauds for Christmas in the Diurnal (MD 72*) (Verbum caro).  Write out the responsory in full, then cross-check what you have written against the recording below.

(Nb if the recording is not accessible in your location, write out your answer and put it in the comments box if you'd like me to check it).

SUMMARY

Short responsories are used at Lauds and Vespers.

Office and chant books typically do not write out the responsories in full, so you need to learn how to expand the cues given.

The basic format of the responsory is:

Respond (said twice in full)

Verse

Second half of the respond

Short doxology

Respond

And for the next part in this series, continue on here.

Nocturns 7/ Resources for the responsories

In the previous post, we looked at what responsories are and their rubrics.  Today I want to look at where to find them.

There are basically three issues her as far as I can see:

• finding the Latin text;
• finding a translation to use to prepare them, even if you do have a breviary; and
• finding the chant settings for them.

Finding the responsories

The basic problem is that the Benedictine Office uses more responsories than the Roman, and the ones common to them both are not always used in the same order or on the same day.  That means that sites and resources such as Divinum Officium will only get you so far.  

For weekdays, the issue isn't a big one - although there are occasionally some variations between the Roman and Benedictine Office, the Roman responsories are a reasonable enough substitute on the face of it.  

In terms of Sundays, I am gradually attempting to fill in the gaps for Divinum Officium over at my Lectio Divina blog, and I am experimenting with a separate responsory database to see if it ultimately saves me time.  But assuming that I continue with it, it will take some time before it builds up to a useful level (though if anyone would care to volunteer to help, things could move faster!).

For major feasts, some of the responsories can be found in the Liber Responsorialis.  

But for a complete listing, the only option really is a breviary, and so I will provide a review of the 1963 breviary, and cover off issues around adapting earlier breviaries in due course.

Finding translations of the responsories

If you have a breviary, the next issue may be finding a translation for the text.  Divinum Officium provides a set of translations for those that are common to the Roman Office.  My Lectio Divina blog fill s in some of the gaps, and arranges the responsories in the order specified by the 1963 breviary.  In addition the Benedictine Responsory Blog should gradually include more and more of these.

If you are looking for them yourself, though, it is worth remembering that the Benedictine Office often 'borrows' the missing responsories from other days and feasts, so if you know the Latin key words, a Google search within the Divinum Officium website will often take you to a translation elsewhere on that website.  In addition translations for some responsories which have polyphonic settings can be found on the CDPL website.

Finally, most of the responsories are based on Scripture, but with a few words omitted, or the case changed.  Accordingly, either a google search, or a look at one of the chant databases (viz Cantus or Gregorien) will often point you to the particular source.

Finding the chants

The basic challenge relating to the responsories is that Solesmes, as far as I can tell, never really revived the singing of all of the responsories at Matins, and so has never published a Nocturnale for the Office.  As a result, most monasteries have perforce, resorted to psalm toning them.

Some of the chants can be found in the Liber Responsorialis, a few more in the Processione Monasticum.  But the best source for most of them in book form is the Standhofe Nocturnale Romanum, which has the virtue of having official approval in the form of an imprimaeur.  There are though, some particular to the monastic Office that are missing from all of these sources.

In addition, I have recently been pointed to an excellent website that does appear to fill in many (but I think not all, though I'm still working my way through it) of these gaps, viz Gregofacsimil.  There looks to be lots of wonderful material there, including complete sets of all the texts necessary for Matins on some feasts and Sundays, so do go take a look.

There are also a number of academic databases, most notably the Cantus website, which provides images of manuscripts and transcriptions for some chants that can assist if you are determined to sing all of the chants or to explore this wonderful repertoire.

Nocturns/6 - About responsories and their rubrics

[Matins on weekdays in winter] …let three lessons be read from the book on the lectern by the brethren in their turns, and let three responsories be chanted between them. Two of the responsories shall be said without the Gloria; but after the third lesson let the reader chant the Gloria. And as soon as he has begun it, let all rise from their seats in honour and reverence to the Holy Trinity.

Rule of St Benedict, chapter 9

[Matins on weekdays in summer] Instead of the three lessons, let there be one from the Old Testament said by heart, and let it be followed by a short responsory.

Rule of St Benedict, chapter 10

[Matins on Sundays] …then let there be read from the book, as we said before, four lessons with their responsories. In the fourth responsory only shall the reader chant the Gloria, and when he begins it let all rise immediately with reverence.

Rule of St Benedict, chapter 11

The rubrics for the elements of Matins

The last element of the rubrics we need to cover is the responsories, as the table below illustrates.

ELEMENTS   OF MATINS

OPENING SECTION

Opening prayer – Domine labia mea aperies

Psalm 3

Invitatory antiphon and Psalm 94

Hymn

NOCTURNS

Antiphons

Psalms of the day of the week

Psalms of Commons and feasts

Canticles

Versicle, Our Father and absolution

Blessings for the reader

Readings

Responsories

CONCLUDING SECTION

Te Deum (hymn)

Gospel

Te Decet Laus (hymn)

Concluding Prayers

What are responsories?

Responsories are chants sung after the readings.

On weekdays during 'summer', they have the same structure as the short responsories of Lauds and Vespers.  On Sundays, feasts and in 'winter' they have a slightly different structure, and generally come with much more elaborate chant settings.

The responsories at Matins are typically a mix of texts relating to the particular book of the Bible being read (in the case of the first and second Nocturns), and the season.  There are usually special responsories for feasts.

The age of the current repertoire of responsories is disputed: while St Benedict and other sixth century rules talk about responsories, the earliest surviving texts date from the eighth century, so it is unclear whether the same repertoire was in use earlier or not.

Rubrics for the responsories

If you are saying the Office alone, you simply say (or preferably sing!) the whole of the responsory.  If the Office is said in choir, a cantor usually starts, with the choir (or a sub-set of it in the case of more complicated responsories) singing the refrain.

Interpreting the breviary

The key issue with responsories is that in a breviary and chant books, they are often not written out in full, so you have to know the structure and/or be able to interpret the cues.

A Matins responsory typically appears in the breviary, for example, looking like this:

R. Adjutor et susceptor meus es tu Domine: et in verbum tuum speravi:* Declinate a me magni: et scrutabor mandata Dei mei. V. Iniquos odio habui: et legem tuam dilexi.  Declinate

R. Thou art my Helper and my Protector, O Lord, and in thy word do I hope.* Depart from me, ye evil doers, for I will keep the commandments of my God. V. I hate the unrighteous, but thy law do I love.  Depart

The red initial letter for 'Declinate' is a cue to say all of the words following the asterix (*) in the first line, viz  in this case, Declinate a me magni: et scrutabor mandata Dei mei.

In the case of the third (or fourth on Sundays) responsory, containing the half doxology, the breviary pattern normally goes like this:

R. Adjutor et susceptor meus es tu Domine: et in verbum tuum speravi:* Declinate a me magni: et scrutabor mandata Dei mei. V. Iniquos odio habui: et legem tuam dilexi.  Declinate Gloria Patri. Declinate

R. Thou art my Helper and my Protector, O Lord, and in thy word do I hope.* Depart from me, ye evil doers, for I will keep the commandments of my God. V. I hate the unrighteous, but thy law do I love.  Depart.  Glory be. Depart.

In each case the red letters are a cue for the phrase that should be said, so that this responsory would actually  be said as follows:

R. Adjutor et susceptor meus es tu Domine: et in verbum tuum speravi:* Declinate a me magni: et scrutabor mandata Dei mei.
V. Iniquos odio habui: et legem tuam dilexi.
R: Declinate a me magni: et scrutabor mandata Dei mei.
V: Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto
R:  Declinate a me magni: et scrutabor mandata Dei mei.

In a chant book, the same chant is generally used for the text following the asterix each time, and so the book simply provides the initial word and note as a cue.  In addition, there are fixed tones for the Gloria Patri for each mode, which can be found in the front of the Liber Responsorialis for example, and so these are often not written out in full either.

Variations on the standard pattern

It should be noted that there are a number of variations on this standard pattern that occur during the year.  The very first responsory of the year, in Advent, for example (Aspiciens a longe) has an extended form, while in Passiontide the half doxology is omitted. The key is simply to follow the cues in your book!

Finding responsories (and translations for them!)

In a breviary, the responsories usually follow on immediately after the readings.

If you are using Monastic Breviary Matins, you will often find them in a separate section - because the responsories are generally the same for the three or four weeks of a month when a particular book of Scripture is being read, or for a season, they save space by putting them together rather than repeating them each time.

The responsories used in the Benedictine Office typically have a high degree of overlap with the Roman Office, but because the Roman Office uses fewer responsories (on Sundays eight rather than twelve), Divinum Officium (which uses the Roman readings and responsories only) will not provide you with translations of all of the responsories each week.  On some but not all occasions, the missing responsories are used on the following weekdays or some other occasion in the Roman office and so can be chased down.  This is not always the case though.

In the next post in this series I will look at the various websites and books that you find the responsories in.