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/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.

There are essentially three streams of responsories:

• those relating to the books of the Bible being read over the year, so on Sundays, the Scriptural readings in Nocturn I, and the commentaries on them in Nocturn II;
• those relating to the season (most notably in Advent, where they largely displace those relating to the Scriptural books being read); and 
• those for specific feasts.

Some of the responsories may be very ancient indeed, most notably those for the books of the Bible some of which almost certainly predate St Benedict.  

All of the sets though, have developed over time, with some of the earliest additions and deletions to the repertoire traceable to the later sixth century (for example for Advent, when that season was added to the Roman calendar); the eighth century, when the reading cycle was revised; and later revisions to reflect new theological and spiritual insights, as well as assorted liturgical reform movements from the ninth century onwards.  

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 depending on the book, can either be found integrated with the rest of the responsory, or in some cases set out as an appendix elsewhere.

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, however they are sometimes set out in a separate section.  This is:

(1) to save space where the same set of responsories is used for more than one week;

(2) because from August to November, the Sunday sets relate to a particular book (or groups of books) of Scripture is being read in that calendar month period, whereas the third Nocturn readings relate to the particular Sunday after Pentecost.  

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), sources for the Roman Office will not necessarily provide you with the chants or translations of all of the responsories each week.