Greetings from Santiago de Chile,
I've been reading this forum for over a year, and I'm a member of the CMAA, but this is my first post and topic. I would like to thank, in the first place, to all the very knowledgeable members that make this forum such a great resource on everything related to Gregorian Chant.
I'm a chanted Office enthusiast, but I "struggle" daily to sing Liturgia Horarum in Latin, for Lauds, Vespers and Compline, according to the 2015 Ordo Cantus Officii. For Compline, I use Ad Completorium by Steven Van Roode (Thank you for this great book!), and for Vespers on Sundays and feasts the Antiphonale Romanum II.
For Lauds everyday and Vespers on weekdays, my procedure is more or less like this:
1) I sing the invitatory antiphon and psalm for Lauds from the Liber Hymnarius.
2) The hymns, obviously from the Liber Hymnarius too.
3) Sadly, I just recite the psalms with the antiphons from iBreviary (a shame).
4) In advance, I collect the brief responsories according to the OCO in my tablet, so I can sing them daily without much time invested.
5) I locate the Mangificat and Benedictus antiphon for the day in the source specified in the OCO (when this is possible!) and sing the Gospel canticle in accordance.
Even with this minimum singing, there are times when the OCO asks for an antiphon from the manuscript tradition, or one listed in the Corpus Antiphonalium Officii or the Antiphonarium Cisterciense or any other rather uncommon source (unlike the familiar Antiphonale Romanum (1912) or the Antiphonale Monasticum (1934) for example) and I'm left without a practical musical setting and usually, to my frustration, end up with the Gospel canticle recited. Also, I don't like to recite the psalms, but I don't have the time to look for the three antiphons on a daily basis, especially when the OCO directs to the sources listed above.
As far as I understand, some of this "manuscript tradition" antiphons have been restored in Saulnier's Antiphonale Monasticum (2005 ->) (but arranged for the monastic practice) and I think they can even be found in Les Heures Gregoriennes. I would like to ask you, more experienced in this area than me, if investing in one, or both of these works would make singing the Liturgia Horarum any less problematic, or at least to have the music so I don't miss chanting the psalms or Gospel canticles because I lack a antiphon from an obscure source.
Thanks in advance!
Source: Joseph Robert Carroll: An Applied Course in Gregorian Chant. Toledo: GIA, 1956.
