More #twitterangelus

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I know I know...

I shall blog about something else at some point. In any case, I shall be brief. I've been praying with #twitterangelus in Italian, and though no Italians seem to have joined us, some obliging anglophones have been praying in Italian with me.

So, as a gesture of goodwill I offered to make a recording in Italian in an attempt to "incarnate" the prayer a bit. And here it is, rushed off quickly yesterday after Noemi's bedtime and before ours. As always happens when you record yourself, I think it sounds horrible, and I can hear myself fluffing it in various places but never mind.

It's the Angelus proper, as we return to ordinary time soon (Monday?) and leave the Regina Caeli for other times; that's part of the reason I thought I'd do a quick recording now, so people could hear it in advance of praying it.

So that's that. Ta ra.

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#twitterangelus in italiano



Appeal to anglophones: if you know any Italians on twitter who might be interested in #twitterangelus, please pass on.

#twitterangelus è nato da un "capriccio pio" di @CCFather ("Ben Trovato"); twittando l'inizio dell'Angelus alle 12.00 GMT un giorno, era sopreso a ricevere una risposta da un certo @sitsio, e hanno quindi pregato insieme. Lo stesso giorno, più persone si sono interessati per poi pregare insieme alle 18.00, poi è diventato un appuntamento. Dall'Inghilterra è passata puntualmente agli Stati Uniti.

Sono iscritto a twitter da poco (@MarkTsoapm) ma la preghiera mi ha interessato subito. E' una bella cosa e credo che andrebbe diffuso; non c'è un motivo per cui questa preghiera (pregata virtualmente ma in una communione non meno valida per ciò) della Chiesa universale non dovrebbe diventare un fatto internazionale attraverso un mezzo di communicazione globale, come un bene di per sé ma anche una testimonianza dell'unità nella fede.

Mi piacerebbe tentare di lanciarla in italiano personalmente, ma temo di non potere fare quello; con una bimba di 16 mesi e la famiglia di tutti e due i genitori abbastanza lontani, faccio fatica a trovarmi davanti lo schermo con regolarità. Infatti prego alle 13.00 CEST quando posso con gli altri inglesi perché se no, non ci riesco. C'è anche il fatto che non conosco italiani su twitter, quindi chi mi risponde?

Allora, mi sa che posso solo proporre e agevolare. La proposta ho già fatto. L'agevolazione consisterebbe in preparare i testi in modo che chi eventualmente vorrà pregare l'Angelus su twitter può farlo attraverso una copia/incolla.

Infatti, in Pasqua si prega la Regina Caeli, per cui ho già messo i testi appositi qui.

Quando si torna a tempo ordinario, i testi twitter-ready dell'Angelus sarebbero i seguenti. Per cominciare il latino, in quanto la lingua universale della Chiesa. Ho messo il testo delle risposte in grassetto. Spero che le palline accanto i testi per chi conduce aumenterà la leggibilità in twitter stesso. I numeri per le Ave Maria servono per fare in modo che twitter non si rifiuta di ripubblicare lo stesso testo più volte.

♪ ♪ ♪ In nomine Patris et Filii + et Spiritus Sancti #twitterangelus
Amen #twitterangelus +

● Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariae #twitterangelus
Et concepit de Spiritu Sancto. #twitterangelus
●¹ Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. #twitterangelus
¹ Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostræ. Amen. #twitterangelus

● Ecce ancilla Domini #twitterangelus
Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. #twitterangelus
●² Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. #twitterangelus
² Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostræ. Amen. #twitterangelus

● Et Verbum caro factum est #inginocchio #twitterangelus
Et habitavit in nobis #twitterangelus
●³ Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. #twitterangelus
³ Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostræ. Amen. #twitterangelus

● Ora pro nobis Sancta Dei Genetrix #twitterangelus
Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi. #twitterangelus

● Oremus: Gratiam tuam quæsumus, Domine, mentibus nostris infunde; ut qui, angelo nuntiante, #twitterangelus
● Christi Filii tui Incarnationem cognovimus, per passionem eius et crucem, ad resurrectionis gloriam perducamur. #twitterangelus
● Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum. #twitterangelus
Amen. #twitterangelus #oremus

● (×3) Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. #twitterangelus
● (×3) Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. #twitterangelus
(×3) Amen. #twitterangelus

● #Requiem aeternam, dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua leceat eis. Requiescant in pace.
 #twitterangelus
Amen. #twitterangelus #requiem

Ora come ora, non credo che gli inglesi pregano le Gloria Patri e Requiem Aeternum, ma le riporto caso mai.

Metto un altro hashtag per l'italiano. Così chi cerca "#twitterangelus AND #it" trova solo l'italiano invece del latino o eventualmente altre lingue nello stesso fuso orario!

♪ ♪ ♪ Nel nome del Padre e del Figlio + e dello Spirito Santo. #twitterangelus #it
Amen #twitterangelus #it +

● L'angelo del Signore portò l'annuncio a Maria, #twitterangelus #it
ed ella concepì per opera dello Spirito Santo. #twitterangelus #it
●¹ Ave, o Maria, piena di grazia, il Signore è con te. #twitterangelus #it
●¹ Tu sei benedetta fra le donne e benedetto è il frutto del tuo seno, Gesù. #twitterangelus #it
¹ Santa Maria, Madre di Dio, prega per noi peccatori, adesso e nell'ora della nostra morte. Amen. #twitterangelus #it

● “Ecco sono la serva del Signore.” #twitterangelus #it
“Avvenga in me secondo la tua parola.” #twitterangelus #it
●² Ave, o Maria, piena di grazia, il Signore è con te. #twitterangelus #it
●² Tu sei benedetta fra le donne e benedetto è il frutto del tuo seno, Gesù. #twitterangelus #it
² Santa Maria, Madre di Dio, prega per noi peccatori, adesso e nell'ora della nostra morte. Amen. #twitterangelus #it

● E il verbo si fece carne. #inginocchio #twitterangelus #it
E venne ad abitare in mezzo a noi. #twitterangelus #it
●³ Ave, o Maria, piena di grazia, il Signore è con te. #twitterangelus #it
●³ Tu sei benedetta fra le donne e benedetto è il frutto del tuo seno, Gesù. #twitterangelus #it
³ Santa Maria, Madre di Dio, prega per noi peccatori, adesso e nell'ora della nostra morte. Amen. #twitterangelus #it

● Prega per noi santa madre di Dio. #twitterangelus #it
Perché siamo fatti degni delle promesse di Cristo. #twitterangelus #it

● Preghiamo: Infondi nel nostro spirito la tua grazia, o Padre, tu che, all'annuncio dell'Angelo, #twitterangelus #it
● ci hai rivelato l'incarnazione del tuo Figlio, per la sua passione e la sua croce #twitterangelus #it
● guidaci alla gloria della risurrezione. Per Cristo nostro Signore. #twitterangelus #it
Amen. #twitterangelus #it

● (×3) Gloria al Padre e al Figlio e allo Spirito Santo. #twitterangelus #it
● (×3) Come era nel principio e ora e sempre, nei secoli dei secoli. #twitterangelus #it
(×3) Amen. #twitterangelus #it

● L'eterno riposo, dona loro, o Signore, e splenda ad essi la Luce Perpetua. Riposino in pace.
#twitterangelus #it #requiem
Amen. #twitterangelus #it #requiem

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Regina Caeli #twitterangelus



Spiegazione da seguire...

Qui i testi twitter-ready per la Regina Caeli in latino:

♪ ♪ ♪ In nomine Patris et Filii + et Spiritus Sancti #twitterangelus #reginacaeli
Amen #twitterangelus #reginacaeli

● Regina caeli, laetare, Alleluia: #twitterangelus #reginacaeli
Quia quem meruisti portare, Alleluia, #twitterangelus #reginacaeli
● Resurrexit sicut dixit, Alleluia, #twitterangelus #reginacaeli
Ora pro nobis Deum, Alleluia. #twitterangelus #reginacaeli
● Gaude et laetare, Virgo Maria, Alleluia, #twitterangelus #reginacaeli
Quia surrexit Dominus vere, Alleluia. #twitterangelus #reginacaeli

● Oremus: Deus qui per resurrectionem Filii tui, Domini nostri Iesu Christi, #twitterangelus #reginacaeli
● mundum laetificare dignatus es: praesta, quaesumus, #twitterangelus #reginacaeli
● ut per eius Genetricem Virginem Mariam, perpetuae capiamus gaudia vitae. #twitterangelus #reginacaeli
● Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. #twitterangelus #reginacaeli
Amen. #twitterangelus #reginacaeli

E qui in italiano:

♪ ♪ ♪ Nel nome del Padre e del Figlio + e dello Spirito Santo. #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli
Amen. #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli

● Regina del cielo, rallegrati, alleluia: #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli
Cristo, che hai portato nel grembo, alleluia, #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli
● è risorto, come aveva promesso, alleluia. #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli
Prega il Signore per noi, alleluia #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli
● Gioisci e rallegrati, Vergine Maria, alleluia. #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli
Poiché il Signore è veramente risorto, alleluia. #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli

● Preghiamo: O Dio, che nella gloriosa risurrezione del tuo Figlio hai ridato la gioia al mondo intero, #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli
● per intercessione di Maria Vergine concedi a noi di godere la gioia della vita senza fine. #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli
● Per Cristo nostro Signore. #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli
Amen. #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli

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Prayer for the Dead and an actual Dilemma

prayer.. (Photo credit: aronki)

Two unexpected things happened today. The first is a prayer request from an unexpected person over at James' blog:

New Friend said... - I know we often disagree but you might, as good Catholics, spare a little thought in your prayers tonight for the dead, those still missing and all affected by the 6.9 earthquake we had here yesterday. It was my first ever and it was pretty scary. We suffered no damage but we are 60 km from the epicentre which is in a remote rural location, where the communication has been cut off, bridges destroyed and landslides block roads. The final death toll will be much higher than currently reported as there are lots of downed buildings yet to be entered.

This is a commenter at James' blog. He lives in the Philippines and writes mostly to opine that Catholics should change their thinking on many issues, in particular because of the problems which result in places like the Philippines. He certainly doesn't seem to believe in Christianity per se, but evidently thinks our prayers are worth asking for at some level. So I'm sure he'd appreciate your prayers as well. Perhaps if I were holier I'd post more prayer requests.

Please pray for them.

---

It also started me thinking about a topic which I've apparently never got round to blogging about: prayer for the dead. I did blog about the intercession of the saints a few times, but the other way around, no.

Before I became a Catholic, I don't remember having an opinion on the subject, but I think that I believed that little could come of prayer for those who had already died; they had lived their lives, and what became of them depended on how they had lived in the time that they had been given.

Looking at it now, this seems to me like a strangely pessimistic attitude for a people who are called to live in the light of the risen Christ, as well as being strangely cold-hearted; even this man who views our religion with suspicion has an intuition of the propriety of prayer for the men and women who are no longer with us. Do we have nothing to offer beyond an exhortation to "seek the Lord while he may be found"?

It seems, in fact, that Jesus would have prayed for the dead himself. Jews pray for the dead now and seem to have prayed for the dead from the time of the Maccabees; it's reasonable to assume that Jesus too prayed for the dead, though the scriptures clearly don't address the matter directly. Interestingly, a relevant passage in the book of 2 Maccabees (12:40-46) actually justifies prayer for the dead on the basis of their future resurrection.

But apart from that, I don't think we have enough information to reject a natural desire to pray for the dead in any case. Intercessory prayer is a great mystery; who understands the relationship between our prayer and the will of God? Not you, that's for sure. And what does it mean to God, if people have "already" died?

Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the whole world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
[...]
A thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.
 - Psalm 89(90)

and

With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. - 2 Pet 3:8

God doesn't run according to our schedule: he's eternal, and the creator of time. Perhaps I'm missing something, but it seems to me that, if you bear this in mind, it really makes a nonsense of the thing. It's easy to see that you won't get anywhere by praying for rain yesterday, but there's a whole spiritual reality which we are only somewhat dimly aware of in the past as well - who's to say what God would make of prayer for the conversion/salvation of someone in the past from our perspective?

And that's without bringing purgatory into it. I see I haven't blogged about purgatory either, but I'll leave it for the minute. You could do worse than reading about it at catholic.com if you're interested.

The Intercession of the Saints
The Intercession of the Saints pt. 2
The Intercession of the Saints pt. 3

---

The second unexpected thing is the arrival of a dilemma. An actual dilemma, as I write in the title, because people tend to use the word quite loosely. I refer especially to moral dilemmas - when you know what the right thing to do is, but you don't want to do it, that's not a dilemma. Just for the record.

So, anyway, my dilemma is a proposal by a work colleague. He works in sales, but writes novels on the side, published novels even. It seems that his last novel at least hasn't been published in English, because he asked me whether I thought I could translate it today. The obvious question is "When?", but it would really be a shame to pass up an opportunity (on a plate) to translate something significantly more interesting than car manuals and potentially have a work in print on my CV.

Decisions, decisions...

Related articles

• Prayer Changes Things (onesinglelady.wordpress.com)
• Prayer Request for Central Philippines earthquake victims - 6 February 2012 (ptl2010.com)
• Philippines earthquake toll rises as dig continues for landslide casualties (guardian.co.uk)
• Prayer and the Sovereignty of God (bycommonconsent.com)
• The Catholic Experience (anthonystephens.wordpress.com)

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Woes which have betided and which are currently betiding us

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The more astute of you may have noticed that, apart from a brief thought on 21 December, I hadn't blogged since 12 November. Perhaps you assumed that I'd found a way to make more effective use of my time - as if.

The fact is that I'm here on my own in Sassuolo, whereas my wife and daughter are down in Offagna. For a couple of days, that'd be fine, but we've been apart for almost a week now, and it's much too long.

I'll start from Christmas. Christmas itself was great, it was great to see my family, and it had been three years since I was in England, which is pretty weird. Noemi met two uncles that she didn't know she had and two great grandmothers. She even met Will and Rosie, who came up to see us. We had a whale of a time.

It took a sour turn towards the end though, when Noemi got a temperature and started vomiting, emitting snot in copious quantitites and, at the beginning, had loads of gunk in her eyes. We were just in time to get to a GP on Friday to get prescriptions for the requisite antiobiotics and drops. It was the most ill Noemi had ever been; it was good to be with my family, but on the other hand, it was a little bit awkward trying to manage the thing outside of our own house and our own control. Those of you who are parents will know that it's no picnic giving medicine to babies, still less lots of different medicines at regular (regular like having to get up in the middle of the night) intervals. This all started when we needed to think about packing to go back. We were feeling a bit ill ourselves by the time it came to make the journey back.

Well, the journey was very tiring and stressful for obvious reasons, and the less said about that the better. We still had a fair few days of the whole medicine routine ahead of us and then, when we went to our actual paediatrician after the course had finished because Noemi obviously wasn't 100%, she gave us some more. I think it ended up being about another two weeks in all after coming back, so we were pretty exhausted. The one who always suffers the most is Monica; I don't believe I'm exaggerating when I say that she's told me that she's tired every single day since Noemi was born, something which she definitely doesn't need to tell me any more, but which I do certainly appreciate - being a mum is really taking it out of her. It's a tough job.

The Sassuolo division of the Dobson family on Noemi's actual birthday

One of the high points in this bloody difficult first month of the year was Noemi's birthday. We had intended to go down to Offagna before Christmas, but called it off because Noemi wasn't too well then either. Then we were planning on going down sometime soon after Christmas instead, only she was more dramatically ill. Her grandparents took matters into their own hands and invited themselves down (lovely as it was to see them, I can't help but feel that I should have been consulted, but they are Italian relatives after all...). Anyway, the celebrations were limited, but it was nice.

So what's next after illness? Earthquakes of course. There were a couple of earthquakes in Northern Italy, both near Parma I think. We're a little way from Parma. Apparently the geographical characteristics of our area dampen the effect of earthquakes from up there, so some people didn't even notice the first one; I was at work, and the people who manage the complex where our offices are told us to get out of the building, so we all bundled out in the cold. Bit like a fire drill really. This being Italy, no-one said anything about when to go back in, so people wandered back as seemed best to them.

The second earthquake came a few days later, and this time we definitely felt it. Monica certainly felt it in our flat on the third floor, and was sorely troubled, which is reasonable; I daresay I wouldn't have liked it much myself. I should mention that our building is quite solid though - the main problem with earthquakes in Italy is old/inadequate (illegal) buildings. I remember our landlord talking about the reinforcements when we arrived here back in the day; it means you can't get a good UMTS system.

We decided, when Noemi was taking her afternoon nap on the following Saturday, that the best thing for Monica's piece of mind was a temporary separation - it would play merry hell with Noemi's already quite messed up (from the illness) bedtime routine and be difficult for Monica and for us as a couple, but all things considered better than Monica worrying about when the next earthquake was coming (it never did incidentally, but they were talking about there being possible further earthquakes so it did make sense). We managed to get an awful taxi driver who drove badly to start with, got lost on the way to Modena train station and started driving even worse out of panic. I felt quite nauseous at the end, because I hadn't been feeling quite right for a few days anyway, and it scarcely helped. So we left on Saturday afternoon (4 hour journey) and I came back on the Sunday afternoon, so I didn't have much time to sit down that weekend.

And then came the snow; I had asked for Friday off so I could be back with Monica sooner, but by the time Friday came, there were stories on the news about people being stuck in the fields on trains without all mod cons for 6 hours, so it wasn't really on the cards. I'm stuck here. This was meant to be the weekend that we celebrated Noemi's birthday with Monica's (extended) family, but from what Monica said to me, not even people from Offagna can manage it.

And finally, now Monica's feeling ill and hasn't eaten all day, and in the afternoon Noemi started vomiting - 6 times now apparently. With all the snow, Monica's worried about not being able to get medicines if she needs them.

It's been a bit of a crap start to the year really. My poor wife.

So, yes, I can blog, I can watch Italy vs. France and I can have a cooked breakfast tomorrow, but it's not going to make up for the fact that my wife and daughter are much further away than they should be, and we don't know when we're going to be able to see one another.

Sigh.


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Psalm Tones for Night Prayer: Psalm 15(16) - Tone I

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And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus.

He whom God raised up did not see corruption. - Acts 13

Before getting stuck in to this tone, this might be a good moment to summarise how we're getting on with learning the tones for night prayer:

Day	Tone	Tone for 2nd Psalm	Nunc Dimittis
Sunday 1	VIII	VIII	III	At last, all-powerful Master...
Sunday 2	VIII	He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High...	III	At last...
Monday	II		III	At last...
Tuesday	VIII		III	At last...
Wednesday	I	VIII	III	At last...
Thursday	I	Preserve me, God, I take refuge in you.	III	At last...
Friday	V		III	At last...

All the MP3s are here, and this is a one-page PDF summary of all the tones. I didn't post it earlier to avoid scariness, since it all looks more daunting in a lump like this. Here is the LLPB's Psalm Tone Distribution Table as well.

Here's tone I. There are loads of terminations to choose from, but I have a recording with termination g, which seems relatively straightforward:

This time the mediant has two stresses (but with no preparatory syllables), and the termination only one stress (but two preparatory syllables). Remember that the neume for the stressed syllable in the termination means a lower note followed by a higher note on the one syllable. So here is our text for Psalm 15, marked appropriately:

Preserve me, God, I take refuge in yóu.†
I say to the Lord: 'Yóu are my Gód.*
My happiness lies in you alóne.'

I will bless the Lord who gíves me cóunsel,*
who even at night directs my héart.
I keep the Lord ever ín my síght:*
since he is at my right hand, I shall stand fírm.

And so my heart rejoices, my sóul is glád;*
even my body shall rest in sáfety.
For you will not leave my sóul among the déad,*
nor let your beloved know decáy.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again; I think it's a good idea to read the text through first, paying attention to the stresses. I'd do that before listening to my version. The whole point, as far as I'm concerned, is to have tones which you can use to sing any psalm (or canticle) you care to mention, as an aid to meditative, scriptural prayer. And that means thinking about the words first and foremost in any case.

Well, having said that, here's how I reckon it should sound. First I tried singing the flex by starting with the tenor on "you" then dropping down, but it sounded really lame, so instead I just decided to treat the lower note as the stress - much better. Lots of stressed final syllables in this text, so it ends up being rather melismatic, but that's fine with me.

Now, with two psalm tone posts in a row, I'd better take a little break. I think I'll try and memorise the whole psalm, get the whole deal down...

P.S. It's a bloody nightmare getting a table into a blog entry, and the blockquoting leaves something to be desired too. I guess that's why they did a new interface; guess I'll have to switch.

Related articles

• You Will Not Abandon My Soul (veritasmizzou.wordpress.com)
• How 'American Idol' Uses (And Abuses) Melisma (www.npr.org)

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Psalm Tones for Night Prayer: Psalm 90(91) - Tone VIII G & G*

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Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'”

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” - Mt 4:5-7

So, back on track with a psalm tone which is recommended for all the Sunday psalms (Sunday I and II can be recited on any day) as well as Tuesday and the second Psalm on Wednesday.

(N.B. According to the 1968 Enchiridion of Indulgences hosted at ourladyswarriors, the second Psalm on Wednesday - De Profundis - has an indulgence attached. If you learnt the tone it might help you to remember and recite the words. Another indulgenced psalm is the Miserere, for which the suggested psalm tone is VII, but it'll be a while before I get to that one.)

That's convenient, but also perhaps a bit boring, so I'm going to do two versions of the tone this time. I see that there are three alternative terminations, but two of them are very similar indeed. I'll do those two now and come back to look at the third termination another time. This time lets look at the tone first:

You can see for yourself that the mediant and the terminations are based on a single stress, and in both of our terminations there are two preparatory syllables. So here's the text:

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most Hígh*
and abides in the shade of the Almíghty
says to the Lord: "My réfuge,*
my stronghold, my God in whom I trúst!"
[..]
Upon you no evil shall fáll,*
no plague approach where you dwéll.
For you has he commanded his ángels,*
to keep you in all your wáys.

They shall bear you upon their hánds*
lest you strike your foot against a stóne.
On the lion and the viper you will tréad*
and trample the young lion and the drágon.

It so happens that there's no flex written for Psalm 90(91), so I put one from another psalm in at the end. From Psalm 142(143) for Tuesday:

I muse on what your hand has wróught†
and to you I stretch out my hánds.*
Like a parched land my soul thirsts for yóu.

MP3 here.

Now, if you look again at the terminations:

...you'll see that only the final neume is different; instead of a one-note neume, it's two notes, returning to the note of the stress. You can hear the difference here. I think it sounds somewhat more monkish. Anyway, it gives you another option.

I think by now I shouldn't need to go into detail about the mechanics of it anymore. If I'm wrong and you'd prefer me to explain something, let me know in the comments. In the meantime, I can finally get on with learning the next one for Wednesday and Thursday!

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Plutocracy

I don't have a Word of the Day or Thought for the Day feature. Never mind.

Word of the Day
plutocracy - Government by wealth or by the wealthy. Also, a State governed in this way.

Thought for the Day
I wonder why people aren’t using the word "plutocracy" more, in the current economic/political climate.

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11/11/11

So, yesterday was November 11. On Facebook I read noble status updates about Remembrance Day (the timing's a bit different here, so nothing doing on that front.

Meanwhile, in our office, the weakest premise for a cake that I can recall has been adopted. At 11:11, the call goes out:

These Romans Italians are crazy! I shouldn't complain; there was even spumante. I note that they sought to render it a less arbitrary cake with a reference to the feast of St. Martin of Tours. You're fooling no-one!

Those things under CHE are meant to be maroni:

Che (due) maroni! - What (a pair of) chestnuts! - What (a pair of) balls! - What a pain in the arse!

Funny thing language...

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Psalm Tones: Psalm 143(144) - Tone VI

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You may already know that there are two different ways of numbering the psalms, one based on the Septuagint and one on the Masoretic text. Eastern Orthodox translations use the numbering of the Septuagint (Greek), Protestants the Masoretic (Hebrew) and Catholics tend to put both numbers.

Why do I mention this? Because this little factoid has confounded my modest plans. I assumed that the Lutheran Liturgical Prayer Brotherhood's Psalm Tone Distribution Table would use the Septuagint numbering system. Why? Mostly absent-mindedness I think, but also because I think all the links I've seen about how Martin Luther believed a heap of things that only Catholics (and the Orthodox I guess) are supposed to believe put the notion that Lutherans are probably pretty trad in my head. Plus, a "Lutheran Liturgical Prayer Brotherhood" who sing using the traditional psalm tones? Sounds pretty tradder-than-thou to me - it'll be like High Anglicanism right? Silly me.

So I learnt the words for Psalm 90 (91) by heart (a Psalm for Sunday Night Prayer, which means you can also sing it any day of the week, you see) but with the "wrong" tone. It's not the end of the world; it seems to work okay, and I'm pleased, with my rubbish memory, to have committed some scripture to memory, but this Prayer Brotherhood probably had a good reason for choosing their tones, so I was planning on following their suggestions.

Anyway, this tone isn't listed for any of the psalms in Compline. So I just picked a psalm I liked that it is listed for:

Blessed be the Lord, my róck†
who trains my árms for báttle,*
who prepares my hands for wár.
[...]
Reach down from heaven and sáve me;†
draw me out from the míghty wáters,*
from the hands of alien fóes
whose mouths are fílled with líes,*
whose hands are raised in pérjury.

To you, O God, will I síng a new sóng;*
I will play on the ten-stringed hárp
to you who give kíngs their víctory,*
who set David your servant frée.

I've just taken some select verses, making sure to leave in a couple of flexes (joined lines) and dactyls (it means "finger" and is a metrical foot - scansion, you couldn't make it up!) to keep it interesting. I cheated and only copied the stresses which are relevant for this tone; in any case, like last time, I suggest you read it through, stressing the stresses, aloud or in your head.

Now here's the notation for the tone:

(This might be a good point to look back at the last instalment, since I'm going to use the same terminology that I did there.)

There are two differences from the last tone that I should mention. First is the termination; in tone III there's one preparatory syllable before the final stress, here, there are two. So in the third line you sing the tenor until you drop down on "hands" and sing "for" on two ascending notes (that's what the two-note neume there means) before you sing the stressed "war". So in addition to reading through the text for the stresses, you'd be well advised to look for the two preparatory syllables in the lines that contain the termination (without a † or * at the end). The second is a reminder that the intonation is usually sung only on the first line; "Reach down from heaven" should all be on the tenor for example.

I deliberately didn't mention something last time, but I'll mention it now. There's a little problem with these tones; they were written for use with Latin, and English (you will have noticed) isn't Latin, so essentially they don't quite work. But the good news is that it doesn't really matter - just fudge it! Apparently there are lots of competing methods for adapting these tones for use with English, but there's no official way and there never will be, so just do what works for you.

My version is here. If I didn't have a 9 month old daughter I would probably record a few takes until it sounded better. Meh.

• Take the first line, for example. Finishes on a stressed syllable. Very common in English but very rare in Latin; that's why whoever wrote the psalm tone assumed that there would be another syllable (perhaps even two) after the stress of the flex (first on the left). What I do is pretend that the lower note is the stressed syllable. Sounds fine to me, whereas the other possibility of singing the stressed syllable on two notes sounds a bit iffy so far as I'm concerned.
• For "lies" and "song" (mediant), I think it sounds better to just sing the note of the stress and forget about returning to the tenor (reciting) note until the next line
• Similarly, there should be a syllable after "war" for the termination at the end of the third line. Here, I nonchalantly sing it on two notes; same with "foes", "harp" and "free".

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Fratelli d'Italia pt. 6

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Hmm. Been a while.

Wot, no beer? - Everyone knows that Italians know about food and wine, what I don't understand is the blind spot when it comes to beer. Obviously they find wine much more appealing, but I can't get my head round the fact that they have no interesting beer on their supermarket shelves. Obviously they don't have to be as interested in beer as we are, but it seems odd that they're not more bothered about it when they can be so anal about other comestibles.

White Bread and Sandwiches - Again, this is odd because it doesn't seem to tally with the tendencies of the Italians themselves. In addition to being more bothered about food than we are, Italians seem to be more interested in their health too. Now, we all know that sensible grown-ups eat brown bread because its better for you, and young whippersnappers are the ones who will only eat white bread and even have special hybrid bread made for them to tempt them away from the white variety. But if you go into an Italian bakery, you'll see heaps of white bread, and if you're lucky you'll manage to make out some brown stuff in the corner. Monica tells me that it's something to do with the fact that brown bread has historical associations with poverty (a phenomenon that was widespread much more recently in Italy); that's fair enough, but talk about old habits dying hard!

Then there's sandwiches. Monica doesn't like English bread; it doesn't meet her expectations, which is easy to understand if you buy normal bread in Italy, it's much more hard, so English bread seems, well, half-baked, which apparently is bad for the digestion or something (made of flimsy stuff these foreigners, eh?). Well that's fine by me; different strokes for different folks and all that. What confuses me is that when you get a tramezzino (sandwich) it always comes in this ridicuolous plasticy white bread without crusts which seems to me to be the epitome of poor quality.

Bidets vs. Shit Toilets - In Italy, everyone has a bidet. That's just how it is. The Italian abroad is generally in want of a bottom-cleaning device and surprised (possibly somewhat disgusted) to see the rest of the world getting on without them. However, while this area of fundamental hygiene seems so important to them, their spotless domestic bidets stand in stark contrast to their wretched and rare public toilets. Woe betide the hapless wayfarer who dares to do their business out of doors. You usually have to pay, they're sometimes of the hole-in-floor variety (the country that gave us aqueducts now wants us to wee on our shoes?), there's never any bloody soap, an electric hand dryer is a rarity and the paper towels have usually run out; then of course they're mucky and full of graffiti. Hold it in, that's my advice.

Ridiculous Names - I've noticed that Italians seem to have a disproportionate number of outlandish surnames. Some examples: we bought our clothes rack from the Bastardi (yes, bastards, obviously) round the corner, the rt. hon. Bocchino (blowjob) is a well-known politician and another Bocchino earned Italy 8 points in the Rugby World Cup with conversions this year, I've seen reports on channel 7 by a Chiappaventi ((arse) cheek-winds) and an "and finally" story about people who go by the unlikely name of Mastronzo ("stronzo" literally means "turd", but Italians use it in much the same way as we use arsehole, of a person, only it's ruder).

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Psalm Tones for Night Prayer: Nunc Dimittis - Tone III

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While Monica was pregnant, I was thinking a bit about my prayer life, and how I could make it easier to pray with my daughter (and indeed my wife) when she came onto the scene. I thought of Compline; I like the liturgy of the hours but don't often manage to pray it and the fact that, ideally, it's a sung liturgy should be helpful, I thought.

'The sung celebration of the Divine Office is the form which best accords with the nature of this prayer. It expresses its solemnity in a fuller way and expresses a deeper union of hearts in performing the praises of God'

- Instruction Musicam sacram

[M]any of the parts, especially the psalms, canticles, hymns and responsories, are of a lyrical nature and are given their full expression only when sung.

Singing in the Liturgy of the Hours is not to be regarded as something merely ornamental or extrinsic to prayer. It springs from the depths of the person praying and praising God[.]

Jewish and Christian Tradition confirms that the psalms are closely connected with music. To understand many of the psalms fully it helps a great deal to sing them or at least to regard them from a poetic and musical point of view.

- Introduction to Morning and Evening Prayer, Anthony B. Boylan, Secretary Liturgy Commission, Bishops' Conference of England and Wales

So I did a bit of googling. I think I already vaguely knew that there were traditional psalm tones, so I tried to find some references I could use and did, but I think I'll have to be more systematic to learn them and be able to use them by heart. So, rather optimistically, this should be the start of a new series to teach other people (with the aid of specific mp3s because not everyone, myself included, can read music, let alone chant notation) the 8 + 1 traditional psalm tones, starting with the only one that I have managed to learn by heart so far.

I'm going to try and explain the principles but don't let that put you off. This is harder to write and about and read than it is to do; it's actually based on natural speech, so if you can talk, you should be up to the challenge, despite any offputting terminology you may encounter. Also, this blog entry might be quite long, but if you persevere with this one, all the other ones should be quite simple. I suggest that, if at any point, it sounds too complicated, listen to the MP3 I made rather than struggling with text on a screen.

As I say, it's based on speech; if, like me, you ever wondered why the text of the office is marked the way it is, you'll soon see why. The starting point is the text. I'm starting with the Nunc Dimittis for the good reason that it's a text to be sung at every Compline, so if you learn a tone for that, you have something you can sing for the Office every day:

At last, all-powerful Máster,†
you give léave to your sérvant*
to go in peace, according to your prómise.

For my eyes have séen your salvátion*
which you have prepared for all nátions,
the light to enlíghten the Géntiles*
and give glory to Israel, your péople.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Hóly Spírit,*
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without énd.
Amen.

The psalm tones are divided (essentially) into two halves. The asterisk that usually comes at the end of every other line marks the point at the end of the first half. The dagger, on the other hand, joins two lines, indicating that they should be treated as one. There's a little more to it than that, but more on that later. Anyway, here you can see that by joining the first two lines together, it makes a stanza of three lines into a stanza of two lines (tone in two halves). So that's the basic structure.

You remember I said that these chants were based on speech? That explain the accents. Perhaps you didn't notice them at a glance, but they're there, over some select vowels. Before tackling a psalm, you need to think about how you would say it. If you read the text above (aloud or in your head), you should see that the accents correspond to natural speech stresses. Try reading it through a couple of times, over-emphasising the stresses; obviously you wouldn't normally need to do this - it comes naturally - but to sing these tones, especially using texts that you haven't sung before, you need to be particularly aware of where the stresses fall. I put the accents into the text of the Nunc Dimittis myself since, in my copy of the Office, they're only marked on the psalms proper.

Now, we need a tone. This would be a good point at which to give a hat tip to chantblog; I basically found all the resources I wanted through that site. The author already did the same thing that I'm doing in this series, but I hope to make my one slightly more accessible. Through that site I found the Lutheran Liturgical Prayer Brotherhood's Psalm Tone Distribution Table, which takes all the effort out of selecting an appropriate tone. They say tone number 3. Fine by me. I'm going to show you (one version of) what it looks like on paper, but if at any point you think it's all getting too abstract, try listening to the MP3 first:

I cut out some detail which is unnecessary for our purposes, and I don't think you should worry about the dotted lines and empty neumes (thats what the little blocks are called) for now. Even if you've never attempted to read music before and this is all Greek to you, you can get an idea of the structure by looking at the symbols. Below the stave are the dagger and the asterisk we saw before; like I said, the asterisk marks the end of the first half. The dagger marks a point where two lines are joined together to form one line, but you can ignore it if there's no dagger in the text; it would be as if all the notes in that section were on the same line. The bit at the top right is the end of the tone (termination). It's not intentionally separate. If I had a bit more spare time I would have joined it to the rest of the tone.

I left in a little terminology, because it's related to the structure. A practical guide to the meaning of it would be as follows:

Int(onation) - Beginning
Tenor and Flex [†] - Singing on the same note (with the exception of [†] where applicable)
Mediant - Middle
[*]
Tenor - Singing on the same note
Termination (not written) - End

You start off by singing the intonation; the first syllable on the first neume, the second syllable on the two (ascending) notes of the second neume. Then you can look at the accents above the stave; the accents are your cues:

At last, all-powerful Máster,†
you give léave to your sérvant*
to go in peace, according to your prómise.

The first accent that you see is for the flex (Ma-ster). If there's no dagger, there's no flex. In fact, if you want to make life really simple, you could just leave it out anyway and sing one long line without having to think in the middle of it.

The first syllable of 'Mas-ter' is the same note as the tenor note, then you drop down for '-ter' and return to the tenor ('tenor' comes from the Latin tenere, to hold - it's a note that you hold on to) until you head up on 'leave' then down again until you head down on the 'ser-' (it's two notes on the same syllable) of 'servant' then back to the tenor note for '-vant'.

Slightly more trickly is the termination, after singing the second tenor part; that's the unmarked part at the top right. Here you need to drop down on the syllable before the accent then return on the accent before descending (again, two notes on the same syllable) - "your pró mi-se".

And that's it bascially; you sing it like that, repeating the two-line pattern of the tone over the text, following the accents until you come to the end.

MP3

Here's another version of the tone. It lacks some of the detail of the other version but, being more essential, I find it's easier to read.

Last time I deleted the various choices of termination leaving just one of the simplest ones (a). For most of the tones there are a few alternatives, of varying complexity.

I should also say that, usually, you only consider the intonation at the start of the tone and begin the 3rd, 5th, 7th etc. lines by jumping straight to the tenor, which makes life a little easier. However, the gospel canticles, including the Nunc Dimittis, should apparently be sung repeating the intonation.

Hopefully that should be all that you need to enter the world of Gregorian chant for the Office! Please let me know if you have any questions or it's otherwise unclear. I'll do my best to make it intelligible.

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