| | Medieval sribes adopted the most diverse methods of arranging the material in a book,
independent of its actual order in the liturgical practice. Late sources facilitate the
orientation of the users by means of rubrics, tables and rules, whereas the early manuscripts
often leave us in total uncertainty. |
| | In order to minimize trouble in this respect we will count as a maximal duration of
Advent with four full weeks and a Saturday in the 4th week (although this day coincides
with the Vigil of Christmas and its material is therefore anticipated in the 3rd week).
We attempt to identify the set of chants actually sung by the users of the source on each
day of this 'longest Advent'. The feasts of saints including that of St. Thomas will be
disregarded, albeit the latter upset the order and required transpositions. |
| Compline | The Compline before Matins on the 1st Sunday is to be sung each Saturday night whereas the one written after the 2nd Vespers is valid for all the other days. The 1st responsory of these Matins has three verses for this occasion all over Europe, performed in some churches with special scenario. |
| Weekdays Matins | A universal rule for the weekday Matins is to sing the versicle and the responsories of the 1st Nocturn on Monday and Thursday, those of the 2nd Nocturn on Tuesday and Friday, the items of the 3rd Nocturn on Wednesday and Saturday. In the following only the exceptions will be listed. (Some churches altered this system in the 1st week of Advent to avoid the repetition of the 1st responsory whose three verses were too much.) |
| | In some churches the order of the chants differed slightly on Sundays and weekdays, therefore the latter will be described again at point 1f2. |
| Extra antiphons
and responsories | Certain days had more antiphonae majores (Ab-Am) than necessary. The surplus items were mostly transferred to the Little Hours regulated by the special rubrics of the sources or made by tacit consent. |
| | On certain Sundays many sources contain extra responsories. They will be either marked as R3+, V3+ (in case of a single responsory) or numbered as R4, R5, etc. (in case of a series of responsories) although the Nocturn had, in fact, only three responsories. The surplus items were sung according to choice in the place of another responsory or during the following week, and sometimes the scribe recorded them as remnants of a once more extensive repertory. |
| The 3rd and 4th weeks
The Proper of
December 17-23 | The items belonging to the 3rd and 4th weeks and those of the Proper of December 17-23 occur mixed in the liturgical books. Our tables will, however, clearly distinguish the two systems, the units of which are as follows: |
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| The antiphones 'O' (see Nos. 3050-3160) were generally written in one group though they are to be sung, as a matter of fact, one by one from December 17 onwards each day. (If there are more than seven items, the series had to be begun earlier.) However, it is good to know that other chants of a similar scheme were often included in this group, such as the commemorations de beata Virgine, de Nativitate on St. Thomas' day, and also the de beata in the Nativity night. The various rites observe different rules in the case of a 'short' Advent when the Magnificat antiphons are driven out of their place by the antiphons 'O'. |
| In the codices there is a distinguished set of responsories called Historia Clama after the name of its first piece. It is either written in one group separately or distributed among several days. These pieces are supposed to be sung during the last days in Advent in agreement with local customs (e. g. on the last four to six days, whereas some may be repeated if their number is insufficient or they can be assigned to Ember Days, etc.). In this edition all of them are gathered at the 4th week in Advent, along with other items for the actual last week in Advent. |
| The most important chants in this period are the antiphons for the last six days. The order of their impositio is regulated neither by the sequence of the days during the 3rd and 4th weeks (like the Ab-Am items) nor by that of the days between December 17 and 23 (as is the case of the 'O' antiphons). In fact, each set is the Proper of a given weekday, the last one of its kind, whether celebrated in the 3rd or the 4th week. Here the cycle is begun with f2 but any other day can be taken to be the first, if it falls on December 17. |
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| | This series gave rise to another difficulty regarding the layout of the book. The items Ab-Am were frequently written down as the Proper of the weekdays of the 3rd and 4th weeks. The scribes often paired the last six Lauds with the Ab antiphons of the 3rd week, others with the Benedictus antiphons of the 4th week (to avoid the necessity of turning the pages), again others added the Ab of both the 3rd and 4th weeks to the 'last six' series. |
| Quattuor Temporum | The situation becomes even more complicated by Ember Days which take their antiphons from the daily Gospel. The scribe either wrote them separately into the Quattuor Temporum section or inserted them in their proper place in the 3rd week, sometimes even among the items of the given day of the 4th (!) week where they cannot be sung. So he combined them with the antiphons of the last six Lauds which were frequently sung in the same Office. |
| Lauds antiphons | For the sake of clarity all the Lauds antiphons of the last six days will be listed at the 4th week (No. 3460-) along with the other Proper chants of the day (Invitatory, Benedictus antiphon). Disregarding the arrangement of the scribes all the Ab items of f4, f6 and Saturday will be written to the 3rd week in such a way that the item connected with the Ember Day Gospel will always be the first and the other(s) sung on any given day, which is not Ember Day, will be entered as second and marked with Ab+. The Invitatories of Ember Days are placed similarly under 3f4, 3f6 and 3Sabb. |
| | The last section of the table is devoted to the Vespers on December 23 called in some codices Vigila Vigiliae. It would be more logical to include this Hour in the section NAT, yet for technical reasons it has been left here. |
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