Much of our choir’s work is singing the music of the Mass, but there is a whole lot of liturgical music for the Divine Office too. After an evening’s choir practice, it’s good to finish with Compline. The Little Office is pretty easy to work out - even all sung in Latin.
01-Intro 02-Psalmody 03-Hymn 04-Little Chapter 05-Canticle 06-Collect 07-Marian Antiphon
Sung by Veronica, Patrick, Christopher, Anthony and Bernard Brandt at home. We’ll have to get something including Peter next time.
And the sing-a-long Karaoke book: compline
UPDATE: Further work on the Little Office is being collected littleoffice.brandt.id.au
While it would be great to sing the full office, there is a very ancient and venerable shortcut in the Officium Parvum Beatae Mariae Virgine, or the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary. There is less variety in there, but still more psalms than most people say in a day (taking a global average there, which may not be a fair comparison… though even an average of mass going Catholics might stand up.) Baronius Press released a Little Office book with the music. A complete office (Latin and English) with music in a little tiny book! The Roman Breviary equivalent would be several kilograms - and I don’t think one exists anyway.
For the keen eyes/ears, you might notice we sing the Monastic Sub tuum. That comes from frequenting The Maternal Heart of Mary Church, Lewisham. The rest is Roman. Though the tone for the psalm is what they sing at their Monastic Compline.
And quick plug for The Ictus who has Booklets for Prime, Terce, Sext and None and has also done some recordings.
So, one more reason to join us for choir practice each Thursday night! Contact us before hand as the venue varies - Girraween or Mulgoa mostly.