This part of the site provides plainsong settings of the communion antiphons from Divine Worship, and of psalm verses that go with them. The chants are listed by both name and use:
- By name
- In the Calendar:
Sources and Approach
The settings are based on traditional Gregorian chant melodies, as adapted to English and published in Palmer & Burgess’s Plainchant Gradual. The Gradual’s text is often identical to Divine Worship, but where it differs I have modified words and music accordingly. Most of the communion chant adaptations were made by Francis Burgess. I favour an accentualist approach to singing plainsong, and am persuaded by the arguments of Bruce E. Ford and others that Burgess’s fidelity to the Latin setting doesn’t always sit well with English accent and syllable count. I have therefore cautiously adjusted settings where I feel it desirable. In doing so I have noted Ford’s own example in The American Gradual 2020, which adapts the Latin chants to texts from the Episcopal Church’s 1979 Book of Common Prayer and the Revised Standard Version of the bible; and that of George Herbert Palmer, who was largely responsible for the Introits, Alleluias and Tracts of the Plainchant Gradual. I have also removed longs at phrase endings and most horizontal episemata, as I feel they encourage a mechanical approach to rhythm (this probably tells you something about my own chant performance preferences).
A PDF file is provided for each antiphon. In addition to the chant adapted as described, each document also gives Burgess’s version and the Latin chant on which it was based. This will allow you to compare and contrast, should you wish. Each PDF also includes a setting of the antiphon to the solemn tone of its mode, and psalm verses pointed to the tone. My own preference at Mass is for the schola to sing my adaptation and one or more verses according to time available, and to conclude with the Latin setting.
The given Latin chant is usually from the 1908 Vatican Edition, but where it is not found there I have provided a transcription of the Sarum version in Frere’s Graduale Sarisburiense; or in its absence, a version from Solesmes. I have sometimes provided a Sarum version in addition to 1908 where Burgess appears to have followed it, or where it has significantly influenced my own version.
Vatican and Solesmes chants, and those of the Plainchant Gradual, are taken from Gregobase, an online database of digitally-encoded Gregorian scores. Unless otherwise indicated Sarum transcriptions are my own, with neumes and division marks normalised to Vatican Edition conventions for the sake of consistency. The plate number from Frere is given for each transcription. I do not suggest Frere gives ‘the’ Sarum versions (that would be an anachronism), or that they were Burgess’s only Sarum source for antiphons not already provided by Palmer. The Graduale Sarisburiense was, however, a significant early publication of the Plainsong and Medieval Music Society, of which Burgess was for many years the Musical Director, and it is a readily-available set of reproductions of original manuscripts. Those with further interest in the Sarum antiphons might usefully look to William Renwick’s and Nick Sandon’s transcriptions, which are based on a wider range of sources. Professor Renwick’s are available through Lulu and at his Sarum Rite site; and Professor Sandon’s in his Use of Salisbury Antico Edition series, distributed through the Royal School of Church Music.
Psalm Verses
Psalm verses are selected from those designated in the Graduale Romanum, in the translation found in Divine Worship The Office. There are two editions of the Ordinariates’ office book: the Commonwealth and the North American. Their psalters are based on different versions of the Coverdale Psalter, as employed by the 1662 English Book of Common Prayer and the 1928 Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. Where translations vary, I will endeavour to give both. I have followed Coverdale where verse structure differs significantly from the Latin.
Downloading and Printing
To download a particular antiphon, click on ‘Booklet’ or ‘Portrait’ according to preference. Both are sized to lettersize paper, but the former assumes your printer supports booklet production. Printers will generally allow you to fit lettersize documents to A4, and I have tested this for each of the documents hosted here.