1965 Dominican Holy Week Available

As readers know, one of my goals is to make the chant books of the Dominican Order accessible to the public in PDF format for download. Through the work of Fr. Gregory Schnakenberg, O.P., a contributor to Dominican Liturgy, we can now make available the last, 1965, edition of the Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae iuxta Ritum Ordinis Praedicatorum, that issued by order of the Master of the Order Aniceto Fernandez. It is now found linked for download on the left side bar under Dominican Chant Books. We already had made available the 1965 Regulae Chantus, and hope eventually to have available the 1965 edition of the Completorium.

This edition is of considerable historical interest. It integrated the selection of chants published in 1959 to bring the Dominican liturgy of Holy Week into conformity with the Roman Rite. In addition, this version of Holy Week abandoned the traditional Dominican notation and imposed on our music the Solesmes method of execution and its system of interpretive marks. Those interested in how this revision affected the music may the chants in this book with those in the older versions, as exemplified by the 1927 edition also available on the side bar.

New Holy Week Chants now available for download

I am pleased to announce that, through the kindness a friar reader of this site, we can now make available in PDF format for download the chant book Cantus Gregoriani ad Ordinem Hedomadae Sanctae Iuxta Ritum Ordinis Praedicatorum (Rome: Santa Sabina, 1959).

As many of our readers know, and as I have explained in my history of the Dominican Liturgy post on this site, the Dominican Rite Holy Week rituals underwent extensive revision in the 1950s to make them conform to the reformed Roman Liturgy. As our rite is a monastic rite and did not have any provisions for blessings of the font (non-existant in monastic churches), baptisms, and other aspects of the secular liturgy, this was a major revision. To supply chants for the reformed rites presented great challenges. The editors of the Cantus Gregoriani sought out as many authentic medieval versions of the chant as they could find and adopted others from the modern Roman tradition.

This set of chants represents the last effort to conform the Dominican Rite Holy Week to Roman practice using medieval music. In 1965, this material would be consolidated into the last edition of the Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae, but in that edition they music would be drastically revised to conform to the Solesmes methods of execution and notation. Those interested in the music of the Dominican Rite before accomodation to the Solesmes regime will find this download especially useful.

The music may be downloaded on the side bar under Hebdomadae Sanctae Cantus Novi.