Nidaros ordo

Sunday 1 February. SEPTUAGESIMA. Commemoration of Saint Brigid, virgin not a martyr. Anthem after Compline: Nesciens mater.
Monday 2. PURIFICATION OF SAINT MARY, summum. Nesciens mater.
Tuesday 3. St Blase, bishop and martyr, three lessons. Com. of the octave of the Purification. O florens rosa.
Wednesday 4. Feria IV in oct. Pur. Rogamus te.
Thursday 5. St Agatha, virgin and martyr, nine lessons. Com. oct. Pur. Ave stella matutina.
Friday 6. St Dorothy, virgin and martyr, nine lessons. Com. oct. Pur. Mundi domina.
Saturday 7. Ss Vedast and Amand, confessors, three lessons. Com. oct. Pur. Salve regina.

Nidaros ordo

Sunday 25 January. CONVERSION OF SAINT PAUL, double. Commemorations of the third Sunday after Epiphany, and of St Preiectus, martyr.
Monday 26. St Policarp, bishop and martyr, three lessons.
Tuesday 27. Feria III.
Wednesday 28. Second [feast] of St Agnes, virgin and martyr, three lessons.
Thursday 29. Feria V.
Friday 30. Feria VI.
Saturday 31. Sabbatum.

The anthem after Compline is Nesciens mater.

Next Sunday is Septuagesima, so alleluya will be sung for the last time at None on Saturday.

St Preiectus/Praejectus is a bit of a collector's item: French, but honoured in some English books. This is the Norwegian Church showing her English roots, I suspect.

And why does St Agnes have two feasts? The second looks like it ought to be an octave day, but is always presented as second, and separate, feast. Did one of them mark a translation of her relics? I'm sure this is terribly easy to find out, but perhaps you already know and can save me the legwork!

Authentic Hildegard?

On a recent posting of Stevie Wishart's Vespers for (N.B. not of) St Hildegard, a reader comments on the inauthenticity of the pronunciation. Yes, I suppose all those post-Tra le sollecitudini "chees and chaws" are a bit out of place in the music of the twelfth-century German abbess, but how far should performers be subject to criteria of "authenticity", given that we know so little about how, where, when, by whom and even, quite honestly, whether, Hildegard's music was performed during her own lifetime? So here are some further inauthentic Hildegard performances.

Hildegard with a selection of old but not actually medieval instruments:



Hildegard with a Tibetan singing bowl:

Hildegard von Bingen: O Ignis Spiritus - Bep Pierik from Veasonic on Vimeo.

Hildegard sung beautifully by Jocelyn West but overlaid with extraneous noises by the director of Twin Peaks:



Hildegard with funny little jingly stick things:



Hildegard grafted onto Swedish folktronica:



Hildegard practically lost among the orchestration, visuals and cosmic twaddle:



And what is probably my favourite Hildegard performance on the internet - the excerpt from Ordo virtutum from the film Vision. [no longer available in 2021]

Nidaros ordo

Sunday 18 January. Second Sunday after Epiphany. Commemoration of Saint Prisca, virgin and martyr.
Monday 19. St Henry [of Uppsala], bishop and martyr, semidouble. Com. St Marius and companions, martyrs.
Tuesday 20. Ss Fabian and Sebastian, martyrs, nine lessons.
Wednesday 21. St Agnes, virgin and martyr, nine lessons.
Thursday 22. St Vincent, martyr, nine lessons.
Friday 23. Feria VI.
Saturday 24. St Babilla, bishop and martyr, three lessons.

The anthem after Compline is Nesciens mater.

Canty sing in honour of St Kentigern

The customary suffrages

That vir eruditissimus, Rubricarius, has enlightened my ignorance on the significance of the abbreviation 'com. sol.' in the kalendar of the Nidaros Breviary. Following the votive office of our Lady, and preceding the sanctoral, the breviary devotes several pages to what it calls the commemoratio solita (customary commemoration) or suffragia.

This consists of two series (one for Lauds, one for Vespers) of commemorations, each commemoration consisting of an antiphon, a versicle and response, and a collect. The commemorations are made in honour of (1) the holy cross; (2) the blessed Virgin; (3) the holy angels; (4) St John the Baptist; (5) the holy apostles; (6) St Olaf; (7) the holy relics present in the church; (8) all the saints; and (9) for peace.

Rubricarius further points out that the rubrics within the body of the sanctoral direct the suffrages to be said more frequently than the kalendar entries would suggest. I'm presently following the kalendar for my weekly 'ordo', but it looks as though this might give incomplete information. The 'corrector' in an early printing house - the forerunner of the modern proofreader - was often highly skilled but overworked, so a good number of discrepancies and errors are only to be expected. As time goes by I shall collate the kalendar information with what can be found in the body of the breviary, as well as with the Missal and Ordo of Nidaros.

Nidaros ordo

Sunday 11 January. Sunday in the Octave of the Epiphany.
Monday 12. Feria II in Oct. Epi.
Tuesday 13. Octave day of the Epiphany, semidouble. Commemoration of Saints Hylarius and Remigius, confessors.
Wednesday 14. Saint Felix, priest and martyr, three lessons com. sol.*
Thursday 15. Saint Maurus, abbot, three lessons noct.*
Friday 16. Saint Marcellus, pope and martyr, three lessons com. sol.*
Saturday 17. Saint Antony, confessor, three lessons noct.*

The anthem after Compline is Nesciens mater.

* I have not yet worked out what the abbreviations 'com. sol.' and 'noct.' indicate: they appear to be reserved to feasts of three lessons, and to be mutually exclusive. I'm guessing the expanded phrases would be 'commemoratio sola' and 'nocturn' - but what would that mean in practice? Any suggestions?

P.S. If you like this sort of thing, you will certainly want to go and 'like' or 'bookmark' the facebook page of the Association for Latin Liturgy, which is reproducing daily the relevant entry from the Martyrologium Romanum, with an English translation.

Nidaros ordo

Sunday 4 January. Octave of the Holy Innocents, nine lessons. Commemorations of the Octaves of St Thomas and the Circumcision of the Lord.
Monday 5. VIGIL OF THE EPIPHANY. Comm. Octt. Thos, Circ.
Tuesday 6. EPIPHANY OF THE LORD, summum., Com. Oct. Circ.
Wednesday 7. Feria IV in Oct. Epi., Com. Oct. Circ.
Thursday 8. Feria V in Oct. Epi., Com. Oct. Circ.
Friday 9. Feria VI in Oct. Epi.
Saturday 10. Sabbato in Oct. Epi.

The anthem after Compline is Nesciens mater.

It is symptomatic of the completely different way in which we now approach both Sundays and octaves that the first entry for this week seems so surprising. The octave day of the Holy Innocents would normally be a feast day of three lessons; when it falls on a Sunday, far from being eclipsed by the proper office of the Sunday, it is simply celebrated with (marginally) greater solemnity.

Vespers for St Hildegard, by Stevie Wishart