By Robin G. Jordan
Before the Service. There is no obligation to have a hymn before or after a
service of Morning Prayer. The rubrics of the 1928 Prayer Book are permissive. (The
rubrics of 1979 Prayer Book go a step further and withdraw permission to sing a
hymn before or after the service.) As the Venite
is the initial song of praise in the service of Morning Prayer, an opening hymn
is not really desirable. In A Guide to
the Practice of Church Music (1989) Marion J. Hatchett offers this helpful advice
on the use of music before the services of Morning and Evening Prayer.
“Congregational participation can be greatly enhanced if the time immediately before the Office is devoted to familiarizing the people with the music. The music of the Office itself may be used or preludes based on it…. In addition to music used for teaching purposes, other instrumental music is often excellent at this point.”
Consideration should be given to the singing of a hymn after
the Venite and before the Psalms. It
is the logical place for a hymn. As well as being itself a song of praise, the Venite is a call to worship that invites
the congregation to sing God’s praise: “O come, let us sing unto the Lord.”
In The Church Portrait
Journal Church Vol. VII. No., September 1886, Church of England Canon M A
Whitaker notes that a much needed restoration to The Book of Common Prayer is
that of the office hymn to its proper place at Mattins after the Venite and before the Psalms. He writes,
“It is well known that its omission at the Reformation was entirely a matter of
necessity, owing to the impossibility of obtaining adequate translations.”
Three years earlier in The
Musical Times, Vol. XXXIV, September 1, 1893 C. Thomas in a letter to the
editor maintains that the place of the office hymn is between the Venite and the Psalms and not after the
Third Collect as another contributor to the magazine mistakenly supposed. He
writes, “Were the Venite once more
separated from the other Psalms by a hymn intervening, its proper character, in
that place, as a Canticle, would
again be recognized.” He further notes that the character of the Venite has been lost sight of since the
Restoration.
C. J. Ridsdale in The
New Office Hymn Book, Parts I and II (1908) notes that the ancient place
for a hymn at Mattins was between the Venite
and the Psalms and at Lauds before the Benedictus. He goes on to conclude, “There is no valid
reasons why these positions, for which there is precedent, should not be
adopted.” He further reasons, “This will give a choice of two constantly
varying Hymns for our Morning Service….”
In The Parson’s
Handbook (1928), in his discussion of Mattins and Evensong, Percy Dearmer
identifies “before the Psalms” as an appropriate place to sing a hymn at
Morning Prayer. Dearmer goes on to write:
"There will, of course, be no procession before the service, and the choir and ministers will enter without cross or hymn-singing. The office hymn may be sung as soon as they are in their seats, or after the Venite."
Earlier in The
Parson’s Handbook (1928), in his discussion of hymns, Dearmer writes:
“… office hymns are meant to be sung at an early part of the service, and thus give keynote to what follows. The best position is that occupied by the hymn at Mattins in the Breviary, viz. between the Venite and the Psalms for the day.”
In Everyman’s History
of the Prayer Book (1912) Dearmer elucidates upon the ancient precedence
for having a hymn after the Venite. He explains that in Sarum Mattins, one of the
two monastic offices that Archbishop Thomas Cranmer conflated to create the
Anglican service of Morning Prayer, a metrical hymn was sung after the Venite.
Cranmer, while he was a master of English prose, had no
talent for versification, and he omitted the hymn for that reason. Cardinal
Quignon upon whose reform of the monastic offices Cranmer based his own reform
of the offices retained the hymn. Quignon, unlike Cranmer, did not undertake
the translation of the offices from Latin into the vernacular.
Ritual Notes ...
Edited and largely re-written by E. C. R. Lamburn. Eleventh edition. With
plates (1964) suggests that the office hymn should be placed after the Venite and before the Psalms at Morning
Prayer.
Lionel Dakers who was organist and master of choristers at
Rippon and Exeter Cathedrals and director of the Royal Academy of Church Music
makes reference to the practice of singing the office hymn after the Venite in his discussion of the proper
place to sing the office hymn in Choosing
– and using – hymns (1985):
“Percy Dearmier, in his Short Handbook of Public Worship, published in 1931, suggested the earlier the better so to remind the people almost at the outset of the service. As it is liturgically incorrect to sing a hymn at the beginning of an office, the earliest feasible moment was before the psalms.”
At Exeter Cathedral the office hymn was sung in one of two
places in the service—after the Venite
or before the third canticle—the Benedictus
at Morning Prayer and the Magnificat
at Evensong. There is, as has been noted, ancient precedence for both practices
in the Sarum Breviary—the first in Mattins and the second in Lauds and Vespers.
Robert Fielding in MODULE
10 Morning and Evening Prayer in the Diocese of Salisbury’s Diocesan
Certificate in Church Music course provides further documentation of the
historic practice of the singing a metrical hymn after the Venite at Matins in the Sarum Breviary. The Anglican Breviary
website in “Lesson Nine: Matins – The ‘Parent’ Office also provides
documentation of the practice.
Church of Ireland Canon M. C. Kennedy in The Study of Liturgy: Morning and Evening
Prayer and the Litany in The Book of Common Prayer 2004 notes that there is
no obligation to have a hymn before the service of Morning Prayer and a hymn
may be sung after the Venite and
before the Psalm.
Michael Gray, a priest with the English province of the
Traditional Anglican Church in his 2010 article, “The Use of Hymns,” published
on The Anglo-Catholic website, writes, “In morning prayer, it makes sense to place
the office hymn after the ‘Venite’
(as formerly in Matins).”
The rubrics of Anglican
Book of Common Prayer: Liturgy in the Anglican Tradition (2012) permits the
singing or recitation of an office hymn after the Venite and before the Psalms at Morning Prayer. This service book
is the work of Richard L. Bugyi-Sutter, a priest of the Society of St Michael,
“a fraternity of Anglican clergy dedicated to the Catholic faith and practice
in its Anglican tradition.”
There is not only ancient precedent for the singing of the
first hymn of Morning Prayer after the Venite
and before the Psalms but also a consensus of informed opinion over a period of
more than 125 years that between the Venite
and the Psalms is the appropriate place to sing the first hymn of the service.
Among the hymns that are particularly suitable for use between
the Venite and the Psalms and whose
tunes are listed in the Gulbransen Digital Hymnal DH-100 CP’s Master Index are the
following hymns. The tunes for these hymns are also listed in the Gulbransen Digital
Hymnal DH 200’s Master Index.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Give Thanks ALLELUIA #1
All Things Bright and
Beautiful ROYAL OAK, SALSBURY, VLEUGEL, SPOHR
All Creatures of Our
God and King LASST UNS ERFREUEN
Christ Whose Glory
Fills the Skies LUX PRIMA, RATISBON, DIX
Come, Christians,
Join to Sing MADRID
Come, Let Us with Our
Lord Arise SUSSEX CAROL
Come, Thou Fount of
Every Blessing NETTLETON, WARRENTON
Crown Him with Many
Crowns DIADEMATA
Father, We Praise
Thee CHRISTE SANCTORUM
From All Who Dwell
below the Skies OLD HUNDRETH, LASST UNS ERFREUEN
Glory Be to God on
High GWALCHMAI
God Is My Great
Desire LEONI
The God of Abraham
Praise LEONI
The God of Heaven
GLORY
God of the Ages
BUNESSAN
Great Is the Lord
GREAT IS THE LORD
Holy Father, Great
Creator REGENT SQUARE
Holy, Holy, Holy
NICAEA
Immortal, Invisible,
God Only Wise ST. DENIO
I Lift My Eyes to the
Quiet Hills UPLIFTED EYES
This hymn is metrical version of Psalm 121. As well as being
sung between the Venite and the Psalm
of the Day, it may be sung as a sequence hymn or offertory hymn at a
celebration of Holy Communion. Psalms are traditionally sung or said in the
order that they are printed in the Psalter. When this hymn is sung after the Venite and before the Psalm of the Day,
it would be appropriate on a Sunday for which the Psalm appointed is a Psalm
printed after Psalm 121 in the Psalter. It might also be sung on a Sunday on
which the Psalm appointed is Psalm 121, in which case one the laudate Psalms should be recited after
it. The laudate Psalms are Psalms
145-150.
I Sing As I Arise
Today O WALY WALY/THE WATER IS WIDE
This hymn is based upon St. Patrick’s prayer (c. 372 – c.
461). William B. Jones adapted the text for the hymn tune O WALY WALY/THE WATER
IS WIDE. The meter is L.M. (8.8.8.8.).
I sing as I arise today,
I call on my Creator’s might
Wisdom of God to be my guide
the eye of God to be my sight.
Wisdom of God to be my guide
the eye of God to be my sight.
The word of God to be my speech
the hand of God to be my stay
the shield of God to be my strength
the path of God to be my way.
the hand of God to be my stay
the shield of God to be my strength
the path of God to be my way.
Splendor of fire, swiftness of wind
firmness of earth, depth of the sea
light of the sun, radiance of moon
all heaven’s strength be given me.
firmness of earth, depth of the sea
light of the sun, radiance of moon
all heaven’s strength be given me.
Christ with me here, Christ with me now
when I arise or go to sleep
Christ in the heart of ev’ryone
who hears or speaks a word of me.
when I arise or go to sleep
Christ in the heart of ev’ryone
who hears or speaks a word of me.
I sing as I arise today” may also be sung to SEED OF
LIFE (Rowan) and ROCKINGHAM (Miller). O
WALY WALY/THE WATER IS WIDE and ROCKINGHAM (Miller) are listed in the Gulbransen Digital Hymnal DH-100 CP’s Master
Index.
I Sing the Almighty
Power of God FOREST GREEN, ELLACOMBE
Join All the Glorious
Names DARWALL/DARWALL’S 148TH
Joyful, Joyful, We
Adore Thee HYMN TO JOY
Let All Things Now
Living ASH GROVE
Let the Whole
Creation Cry SALZBURG, LLANFAIR
Let Us with a
Gladsome Mind WILLAMS BAY, MONKLAND, [INNOCENTS, ORIENTIS PARTIBUS]
Lord, as I Awake I Turn to You DANIEL (Irish), MELCOMBE (Webbe)
Lord, as the Day Begins LITTLE CORNARD, CROFT’S 136TH
LITTLE CORNARD is not in the Gulbransen Digital Hymnal DH-100 CP’s Master
Index. However, MP3 files of the tune played on the organ and the piano may be
downloaded from the SmallChurchMusic.com website. “Lord, as the day begins” may
also be sung to CROFT’S 136TH, which is in the Master Index. LITTLE CORNARD is
the preferred tune.
Lord of All
Hopefulness SLANE
Lord of Creation, All
Powerful, All Wise SLANE
May Jesus Christ Be
Praised LAUDES DOMINI
Morning Has Broken
BUNESSAN
Name of All Majesty
MAJESTAS
New Songs of Celebration Render RENDEZ A DIEU
Now that the Daylight
Fills the Sky LAUREL, HERR JESU CHRIST
O for a Thousand
Tongues to Sing AZMON
Of The Father's Love Begotten
DIVINUM MYSTERIUM
O God, You Are My God
ST. BRIDE
This hymn is a metrical version of Psalm 63. See my notes
for “I Lift My Eyes to the Quiet Hills.” The same principles are applicable
when a metrical psalm is sung between the Venite
and the Psalm or Psalms of the Day. Psalm 63 has a long association with the
dawn office. It was a fixed element of the ancient cathedral office of Lauds.
O Worship the King
HANOVER
Praise, My Soul, the
King of Heaven LAUDA ANIMA
Praise the Lord and Bless His Name DIX
Praise the Lord, His
Glories Show LLANFAIR
Praise The Lord, The
Almighty LOBE DEN HERREN
Praise to the Living
God! LEONI
Rejoice the Lord is
King DARWALL/DARWALL 148TH, GOPSAL, LAUS REGIS, JUBILTE
Shout for Joy, Loud
and Long PERSONENT HODIE
Sing Praise to God
Who Reigns Above MIT FREUDEN ZART/BOHEMIAN BRETHREN
This Day God Gives Me
BUNESSAN
This Is the Day the
Lord Hath Made TWENTY-FOURTH, ARLINGTON, LONDON NEW, NUN DANKET ALL' UND
BRINGET
Thou, Whose Almighty Word MOSCOW
Thy Strong Word Didst
Cleave the Darkness EBENEZER/TON-Y-BOTEL
We Praise Thee, O God
KREMSER, REVIVE US AGAIN
We Will Extol You
OLD 124TH
What Wondrous Love Is
This WONDROUS LOVE
When Morning Gilds
the Skies LAUDES DOMINI
Ye Holy Angels Bright
DARWALL'S 148TH/DARWALL
Ye Watchers and Ye Holy
Ones LASST UNS ERFREUEN
This list is only a representative selection of hymns that
may be used at this point.
If a hymn is sung before the beginning of the service, it
should not be sung as what is erroneously called a “processional.” The
ministers should go quietly to their places and not begin singing until they
are there.
The ceremonial entrance of the ministers before the
beginning of a service, while it may be sometimes called a procession, is not
actually a procession in the strict liturgical sense. A procession is a short
service before a choral service of Holy Communion or after Solemn Evensong in
which two hymns are sung while the choir and ministers proceed from the
chancel, around the church and back to the chancel again. The two hymns are
separated by a station at which a versicle, response, and collect are sung or
said.
A procession is either festal or penitential and involves
the singing or chanting of hymns, psalms, or litanies. The four principal
occasions on which a small church with a choir might have a procession are
Christmas Eve, Palm Sunday, Easter, and Rogation Sunday.
Two ministers, one walking behind the other, is not a
procession by any stretch of the imagination.
The formal entrance of the ministers with cross and lights
and in some churches incense is historically connected with the service of Holy
Communion. It is not one of the ceremonies associated with the services of
Morning and Evening Prayer.
Also See
Early in the Morning Our Songs Shall Rise to Thee: The Music and Conduct of Morning Prayer, Part 1
Also See
Early in the Morning Our Songs Shall Rise to Thee: The Music and Conduct of Morning Prayer, Part 1
No comments:
Post a Comment