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| | The QU section of the tables lists the Office chants from the 1st Sunday in Lent to
the Lauds of Holy Saturday. The weeks are numbered continuously over the whole Lent period,
the Dominica Passionis being thus marked D5, the Dominica Palmarum D6
and the last days of the Holy week 6f5, 6f6, 6Sabb. |
| | According to an almost universal custom one of the Nocturnal responsories was
anticipated at the 1st Vespers of each Sunday. |
| Compline | The structure and the chants of the Compline are not always obvious. Many
sources do not assign an antiphon to the psalm and we can only guess that it was taken from the
Psalter section. The responsory is often missing and it is doubtful whether this item was omitted or
taken from the Psalter. The antiphon to Nunc dimittis is frequently the proper of Lent,
being sometimes different for Sundays and weekdays (the latter is recorded as D-CC in the
tables), moreover it could vary in one- or two-week periods. In this respect even the same rite
may show incongruencies. |
| Cycles of responsories | The cycles of responsories (D1: De Quadragesima, D2: Historia de Jacob, D3: de
Joseph, 4D: de Moyse, D5-6: de Passione Domini) generally exceed the number nine needed for
the cursus saecularis. The majority of the sources list the surplus items after the last
Sunday responsory while others shift them to the following weekdays (to f2, sometimes also to f3,
f4). The method of redaction often varies even with books belonging to the same rite and the
actual situation can only be reconstructed by collating the sources. At any rate, these responsories
must have been sung on weekdays (unless copied only out of a feeling of reverence for tradition).
We will record them so, even if they were originally included on Sunday in a certain part of the
sources. |
| Little Hours
2nd Vespers | It is well-known that the Little Hours of the Lent period had rather short but musically
elaborated responsories after the model of the responsorium prolixum instead of the
responsoria brevia (consequently marked as R instead of r). The three sets of these responsories appeared in two-week turns.
We count among these series the responsories for the 2nd Vespers on Sunday sung probably on
weekdays, too (often unmentioned, however, in the weekday rubrics). As regards the distribution
of these Vespers responsories there may have been some differences in the rites (Sunday -
weekdays, length of one turn, etc.) rather than in the Little Hours. |
| Suffragium | At the end of Lauds and Vespers a single suffragium (antiphon + versicle +
oratio) called pro peccatis or pro populo was inserted, the antiphon of which is recorded in the
tables on the day 1f2 for Lent and 5f2 for the tempus passionis. |
| | The Ab-Am antiphons are assigned to the pericopes of the Lenten days. There are
days with more than two of such pieces and the surplus items were either omitted or shifted to the
Little Hours (where the tables list them) or copied simply out of respect for tradition. The facts cannot be always accurately
established as the antiphons are frequently listed without any qualification. |
| From the 5th Sunday | From the 5th Sunday onwards the Office is governed by particular rules the most important
being the omission of the doxology in the Invitatory and the responsories. There are other changes
in the order of the Compline antiphons, the set of versicles and the suffragium pro
populo. |
| The Holy Week | In the Holy Week the weekday responsories are no more assigned to the Sunday set in
most of the sources and the assignement is indicated day by day. Monday, Tuesday and
Wednesday before Easter had a set of antiphons for Lauds each, and also Proper antiphons for the
Little Hours. Other peculiarities varying according to tradition are enumerated in the tables and
notes. |
| | The Office on the three remaining days of the Holy Week differs from any other
celebration and reflects a very old state of the Roman Liturgy. It lacks the Invitatory, the hymns,
the Capitulum and some other parts; at Lauds and Vespers only psalms, canticles and oratio were
performed. The Little Hours were only recited in prose in a simple way. |
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At the end of the Lauds, however, a solemn litany was sung provided with different names
in the European churches. The scheme of this invocation is: Kyrie eleison - Verse - Domine
miserere - Christus Dominus, all repeated three times with changing verse (the latter
supplemented by trope-like other verses in some rites). Neither the litany nor the different local
additions will be included in our tables whereas the selection of verses typical of a given tradition
is recorded in the commentary. |
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