WO YEARS AGO, I made the decision that our choristers would sing Vespers (from the modern Liturgy of the Hours) four times weekly during the choral season, which meant roughly 90 Vespers services annually—quite a lot of time for laymen to spend with the Church’s official prayer. While it was rewarding, it still left a pang in my soul for something deeper and more spiritually enriching. What follows is a brief account of how (and why) I decided to switch from LOTH Vespers in English to Ordinariate Evensong. I don’t claim to be an authority on any of the ideas set forth in the following narrative, I simply wish to explain how I came to my decision.
The Mighty Roman Rite • At the beginning, let me make it clear that my personal preference has always been for the traditional Roman Office. While I realize Pope Saint Pius X made alterations to that same Roman Office at the turn of the last century, he still—at the very least—followed in the spirit of what had come before. But the LOTH was (in almost every respect) an utterly new creation, with nary a nod to its historic predecessor. Nevertheless, I found myself in a Novus Ordo parish in which the pastor expressed his wish that the vast majority of music be sung in the English Language, leaving me with what I thought was only one viable option for singing the Divine Office: viz. the modern Liturgy of the Hours. For the last two years our choristers sang Vespers primarily from Fr. Samuel Weber’s Mundelein Psalter, but they and I were soon ready for something with greater musical depth. However, I should mention that one aspect of his psalter I particularly loved was the use of the traditional office hymns and melodies that drew connections for the choristers between the days of the week and the days of creation, among other things.
Bowdlerization • Other problems with the LOTH had bothered me for much longer, particularly the fact that a number of psalms had been completely excised from it, while portions of others had been removed because they were deemed too difficult to reconcile with modern sensibilities. I couldn’t imagine a worse way to approach the Scriptures than to cut out the parts of Holy Writ I struggled with. It all seemed very Jeffersonian to me—not necessarily what the saints would have done.
Crayon Drawings • Aside from the banishment of these parts of the psalter from the LOTH, there was the problem of translating what was left in it. I found the LOTH rendering of the psalms into English so utterly puerile—and completely devoid of beauty—that it was difficult to reconcile my soul to it. Praying the LOTH in English was akin to staring at a child’s crayon drawings of a clump of hills rather than beholding, in the flesh, the beauty and majesty of the Rockies. I also wondered if the LOTH in English was ever actually meant to be sung, considering the manner in which the books broke up the verses, or the fact that it still had never officially been set to even the simplest of chants.
Psalm Tone Difficulties • Then there was the matter of psalm tones composers set for use with the psalms in English. I found English language psalm tones, broadly speaking, EXTREMELY BORING! I never could find one that sounded even half as finely-wrought as its Gregorian counterpart. No matter what Roman numeral the composer placed in front of his English language chant, it came across to my ears as major or minor. I realized the meter of the English and the Latin languages were very different (and that this made for difficult paring of English words to Gregorian melodies), but I would have preferred a couple of badly stressed syllables any day of the week over the ad nauseam use of Mi Mi Mi Mi Mi Mi Re Do Re —— Re Re Re Mi Do.
My Version • These conundrums swirled like the Kansas wind in the back of my mind for a long time. Nevertheless I decided to press on and create a musical version of Vespers in English for the use of our choristers; a version as close as possible to the musical shape of the Latin original. I rounded up the books I would need, but very soon realized the scope of the project ahead of me was much larger than I’d ever thought, and I was overwhelmed. Never mind, I pressed on anyhow. I decided to use Gregorian psalm tones regardless of any awkward word/musical accents and pulled out my unused copy of Saint Dunstan’s Plainsong Psalter (an Anglican liturgical book) during Holy Week and began singing the psalms each day. I did this in order to figure out how someone might set the English Psalms to plainsong melodies. I admit there were a few awkward word/musical accents—but hearing the Gregorian and Sarum melodies far outweighed any such awkwardness in my opinion. I also fell in love with the COVERDALE TRANSLATION, which was like pure crystalline water pouring forth onto the parched earth of my soul, especially after putting up with the stale verbiage of the LOTH. This translation was real poetry and conveyed the greatness and magnitude of God and His love for us in poetic language that mere words could never have done.
[While I no longer sing them, I do continue to read through the COVERDALE PSALMS appointed for each day as part of my own daily meditation. It amazes me how often I have to stop to ponder a line of text that the psalmist wrote thousands of years ago, which Myles Coverdale translated 500 years ago, simply because it is so pertinent to what is taking place in my life today. Of course, I chuckle when I think what Coverdale might have to say about his psalms now being considered part of our Catholic liturgical patrimony thanks to the Ordinariate.]
My Background • For a long time I had loved listening to Choral Evensong from the many fine Anglican Choral establishments. I had found incredible spiritual comfort in it, so I wasn’t altogether unfamiliar with the Coverdale translation. While I harbored a deep love and respect for Anglican chant, I had never considered Choral Evensong as a serious option for use in an “Ordinary Form” parish. Nevertheless, following my daily encounters with this translation, the thought of returning to the LOTH translation left me cold. At the same time, I knew that the Coverdale Psalter had become a part of our Catholic Liturgical heritage because of Anglicanorum Coetibus and its use in the Ordinariate, so I went on a quest to find out how similar Anglican Evensong was to the Ordinariate Evensong. By so doing, I discovered just how similar the two are. And what is more, I found that the Ordinariate was so committed to praying the Office communally they’d set up a user friendly website that changed twice daily so that the full text of the Office (morning/evening) was always updated, along with chants (in chant notation) for the psalms, Magnificat, and Nunc Dimittis. People could call in and sing the offices communally. Moreover, their website provided printer-friendly versions of each office (with music included if one wished).
Too Many Brick Walls • When I tried to set Vespers from the LOTH in English to music (as closely as possible to the Latin version) I slammed up against a brick wall at every turn: whether it was the difficulty of finding all the liturgical books and music (first in the Latin language) or being trapped by bad translations and neutered psalm verses. And then, without warning, I stumbled across the Ordinariate Divine Office, which provided everything I had hoped for, from the full use of the psalter to a beautiful English translation … and all set to more than a thousands years of sacred music.
My Choice • After receiving encouragement from the director of our Archdiocesan Office of Worship, I made my decision to switch to the Ordinariate Divine Office and I can’t imagine going back.
