Views from the Choir Loft

Compline Online with Chant Notation

Veronica Brandt · October 22, 2016 ·

IGHT PRAYER OR COMPLINE makes a beautiful end to the day, invoking special blessings for the night as well as a reminder for a daily examination of conscience.

It’s also one of the simplest hours of the Divine Office or Liturgy of the Hours. You can imagine people tended to keep things simple at the end of a long day when it might be hard to keep one’s eyes open. Another reason may be that it could be prayed from memory in the dark.

Last week, browsing through repositories on Github, I stumbled across a beautiful rendering of Compline from the maker of the GABC Transcription Tool.

* * Compline thanks to Benjamin Bloomfield

I’m looking forward to sifting through the source code and seeing just how he manages to render the square notes and dynamically adjust linebreaks depending on the size of the browser window.

At home we rely on printed booklets to sing Compline together. These are also available via Github. Having the translation helps, though I’m not sure how one might add it to the browser based compline above without spoiling the layout. A universal familiarity with Latin would make liturgical booklet printing so much easier!

About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. As editor, she has produced fine publications (as well as valuable reprints) dealing with Gregorian chant, hymnody, Latin, and other subjects. These publications are distinguished on account of their tastefulness. She lives in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her husband Peter and six children.

Anger at mistakes

I have a bad habit of getting frustrated when choir members take a long time to learn a particular interval or entrance. But this can be “cured.” It was cured a few weeks ago, when I made a mistake. I was supposed to go down a minor third, but instead I went down a perfect fifth. It reminded me that errors do happen—and we must be patient with our singers!

—Jeff Ostrowski

“The old man carried the Child, but the Child led the old man.”

The Antiphon for First Vespers of the Feast of the Purification (February 2nd) is beautiful: “The old man carried the Child, but it was the Child who was guiding the old man. The Virgin bore the Child, and after child-bearing was virgin still: whom she bore, him she adored.” —Senex púerum portábat, puer autem senem regébat: quem Virgo péperit, et post partum Virgo permánsit: ipsum quem génuit, adorávit.

—Jeff Ostrowski

A quote from Fr. Valentine Young

I had one brother who was out of the church for quite a few years. When my mother was asked, “Did she worry about him?” I remember her answer: “I don’t worry about him; I just pray for him.” She left that in God’s hands. My mother did not live to see her son return to the Church; but he did, and I was able to celebrate his funeral Mass.

—Jeff Ostrowski