Mundelein Psalter Audio

Audio links dead

2009-04-22T02:47:00.000-07:00

The audio links below are dead because my host went out of business. But that's OK, since nearly everything is available in a much better format on the Mundelein Psalter Web site here: http://www.usml.edu/liturgicalinstitute/projects/psalter/psalter%20audio%20files.htm.

For the sake of learning purposes, I have posted a new tutorial walk through of Morning Prayer, with all the elements included. I show how to use the Mundelein Psalter Web site audio to help you through the full prayer.

Full Morning Prayer

2009-04-22T02:39:00.000-07:00

My dad has started to use the Mundelein Psalter, and has been hitting the steep learning curve as I did, without the help of a musically semiliterate wife. While Fr. Martis and the Liturgical Institute team have put much of the main material in audio form on their Web site since I began this blog, some major elements still remain to be recorded. The one that really stumped my dad is the invitatory, which is in mode IVa, which has no example recording on their Web site. I have included the entire Morning Prayer invitatory in this full recording / tutorial on Morning Prayer for my dad:

Intercessions

2008-09-03T18:42:00.000-07:00

Thanks to visitors' advice, I think we've figured out how the intercessions go. The key was learning that the short verse in all italics gets repeated after each couplet of the intercession. Not sure we have the mode right, but it's close at least.

Boomp3.com

Plea for proofreading

2008-08-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

I've corrected Modes VIIIa and VIIIg according to Scott's suggestions; the new recordings are in the list at the bottom of the blog. This also makes me realize that the Lord's Prayer is all wrong, and I don't know how to correct it. The Fa clef thing really throws me, and the explanation in the MP doesn't make sense to me or to my wife. (What does "start with Fa" mean, if you don't know how Fa corresponds to notes on a keyboard or flute?)

Anybody interested in giving a listen and double checking our work?

Liturgical Institute recordings

2008-08-28T08:03:00.001-07:00

Today I spoke with Fr. Douglas Martis of the Liturgical Institute, which publishes the Mundelein Psalter. He said there are plans to put recordings of all the modes, and a sample office, on the Web site this fall. That's good news!

Corrigenda

2008-08-27T18:13:00.000-07:00

If Scott's comments are right, and I assume they are, the recordings for modes IIIb, VIIIa, and VIIIg are wrong. I'll try to get those corrected soon.

And that means that our chanting in the demo, which has the first Psalm in VIIIa, is wrong.

And it reminds me that in all of this I forgot a cardinal rule of medieval writing, which is to ask my readers to correct my mistakes. Please do let us know if you see or hear something that grates!

Beginner's guide to chanting the Liturgy of the Hours with the Mundelein Psalter

2008-08-05T12:22:00.000-07:00

My wife and I have been using the Mundelein Psalter (MP) to pray the Liturgy of the Hours for about six weeks. We had quite a learning curve, since I have no musical training and we were also new to the Liturgy of the Hours. We relied heavily on my wife's high school band experience. After poring over the MP for several hours and comparing her conjectures to the recordings on the MP's official website, she finally figured out how the tones and notations differed from modern musical notation.

The problem is that the official website only has recordings of the hymns. If you are completely musically illiterate like me, or only semiliterate like my wife, then even learning simplified Mundelein chant can be a challenge.

So then the hard work began. She taught me how to pick out the notes on a keyboard, and we would spend a good half hour for each office just trying to get the tunes right and match them to the text. We spent much of our summer vacation time in long, frustrating prayer offices, during which very little actual praying got done.

I realized that it would be much easier if I had all of the modes recorded, so I could just pray with my computer or iPod open each morning, rather than spending fifteen minutes trying to get the tune right on the keyboard.

So this Web site is for those in our position. It's sort of like the deaf leading the deaf, and it could be we are doing everything wrong. But I'm pretty sure the recordings of the modes, below, are right.

And here is a brief demonstration of how we use the recordings to chant the office.

Mundelein Psalter Chant Modes

2008-08-05T11:37:00.000-07:00

Here are all of the modes used for daily Psalms and canticles, played on a synthesizer keyboard. You can find the notation for them on p. 53, and of course at the top of each psalm or canticle. The first note of each bar is held to indicate that it is the starting note, to be chanted for each syllable before the italics indicate the change. The last note of each bar is held to indicate the extra beat, which is represented in the notation by a dot after the note.

Each verse is played three times.

Boomp3.com

Boomp3.com

Boomp3.com

A feeble, but fairly accurate, effort to sing the Lord's Prayer (since I'm not good enough to play it smoothly on the keyboard), on p. 50 of the MP: