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Views from the Choir Loft

EF Divine Office Resource • Daily Recordings of Lauds

Guest Author · February 28, 2017

338 Jonathan Kadar Kallen MAGINE WAKING UP one morning and being able to listen to an mp3 of the day’s Lauds while you prepare breakfast or get ready for work. Or perhaps today you have time to spare, and can follow along with a handy translation from DivinumOfficium.com, or the chant notation from the PDF of the 1949 Antiphonale Romanum. Maybe it’s even your responsibility to get next Tuesday’s recording done and posted in time, like you signed up for. Sound unrealistic?

    * *  Dominus Regnavit Blog

You might be surprised. Since November 27th, 2016, the Dominus regnavit blog has indeed been posting daily recordings of sung Lauds, according to the liturgical books in effect in 1962. Not having a monastery on hand (and anyhow, using the Roman secular form of the office), this project is setup in such a way that everyone is encouraged to help out with providing the necessary recordings. And the great thing is, because the whole site is based on free resources, keeping the project going is quite as simple as making sure that someone will record and post the next mp3. (It could be you!)

Be that as it may, whether you incline to listen to a day’s Lauds, poke around the explanatory materials, or consider contributing a recording, I hope you may find this new blog project a useful contribution to the many great chant resources already available. Do stop by sometime!

I would like to append, as something of a footnote to the picture which accompanies this article, a passage quoted in Britt’s The Hymns of the Breviary and Missal (1922):

“Cock-crowing had for the early Christians a mystical significance. It said ‘The night is far spent, and the day is at hand.’ And thus the cock became, in the Middle Ages, the standing emblem of the preachers of God’s word. The old heathen notion that the lion could not bear the sight of the cock, easily adapted itself to this new symbolism. Satan, the roaring lion (I Peter 5, 8) fled away terrified, at the faithful preaching of God’s word. Nor did it pass unnoticed, that this bird, clapping its wings upon its sides, first rouses itself, before it seeks to rouse others.”

Thus, for example, it is still sung as part of the hymn for Sunday Lauds in the fall and winter months, “Gallo canente spes redit. / At the crowing of the cock, hope returns.”

…which is a cheering thought.


We hope you enjoyed this guest article by Jonathan Kadar-Kallen.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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President’s Corner

    15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    This coming Sunday—13 July 2025—is the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C). All the chants have been conveniently assembled and posted at the feasts website. The OFFERTORY, Ad Te Levávi, is particularly beautiful.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Music Director Job • $80,000 per year
    Our readers will be interested in this job offering for Music Director at Saint Adalbert’s Basilica, located 40 minutes from where I live. My pastor was recently elevated to this basilica. He is offering $80,000 per year, plus benefits. I’m told Saint Adalbert’s Basilica is utterly gorgeous and contains one of America’s most magnificent pipe organs. It would be fantastic to have a colleague nearby!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Simplest “Agnus Dei” Ever Published
    Our choir is on break during the month of July. I needed a relatively simple “Agnus Dei,” so I composed this setting for organ & voice in honor of Saint René Goupil. It has been called the simplest setting ever composed. I love CARMEN GREGORIANUM (“Gregorian Chant”), especially the ALLELUIAS, INTROITS, and COMMUNION ANTIPHONS. That being said, some have pointed out that certain sections of the Kyriale aren’t as strong as the Graduale or Vesperale. There’s a reason for this—but it would be too complicated to explain at this moment.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

“The cemeteries are full of people who thought they were indispensable.”

— Fr. Alan Heet, OFM

Recent Posts

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  • 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
  • The Tallis Scholars
  • Music Director Job • $80,000 per year
  • Pope Saint Paul VI to Consilium (14 October 1968)

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