Romanized Antiphons

I bought an 1893 Dominican Breviary (Part I only, alas, being all that was available) for €10 when in Rome a few weeks ago.  One nice aspect of the pre-Pian Dominican Breviary - that is, prior to the Order's forced adoption of the new arrangement of the psalter as organized by Pope St Pius X for the Roman Breviary - is that the psalms are all set out in numerical order, with minimal rubrics attached specifying when and at which Hour each is to be said: you have to look to the Office of the first Sunday after the Octave of the Epiphany, and the following Monday, to find the rest of what would be styled the Ordinary of the Office.

Sadly, once the Dominicans were forced to adopt the new weekly distribution of the psalms in place of that dating from the first half of the first millennium, something the Order managed to delay until 1923, much more was lost than just the immemorial ferial arrangement of the psalms (which, as in the pre-Pian Roman Breviary, was to be honest nearly always replaced by those prescribed in the Commons of Saints).  Amongst many other changes made, the opportunity was taken by Romanizers to replace the traditional Dominican antiphons with those newly prescribed for the rearranged Roman Office - even though the Dominican antiphons were often the same as those found in the Benedictine Office, and thus had an impeccable pedigree.

For example, I looked at the thirty-five antiphons for the psalms at Vespers through the week in the 1893 Breviarium S.O.P., and then compared them with the antiphons in post-1923 Dominican books (a Diurnal from the fifties, and the 1962 Breviarium S.O.P.), as well as with those in the 1962 Roman Breviary, and in a 1953 Breviarium Monasticum in my possession.  The results were horrifying: 

• only 13 antiphons were retained, all being the same as the Roman ones;
• 22 were changed - including all those proper to the Order.

Of the 22 antiphons that were changed, 15 were the same as those used in the Benedictine Office (and if the Benedictines could keep them, why not Dominicans?), while six were for psalms not provided with their own individual antiphons according to the Monastic Breviary.  Most miserably, those six, and also another three antiphons for Vesper psalms that were proper to the Dominican Office, and not found in either the Roman or the Benedictine uses, were all deleted in favour of their Roman equivalents.

What harm had these texts done, that they (and their proper chant, according to which they had been sung in the Order for seven centuries) deserved suppression and replacement with alien words, unfamiliar music?  This is a sad instance of the maniacal suspicion with which, in the post-Tridentine period, all non-Roman liturgical uses and Rites were regarded by too many, both in the Curia and, worse, even among some Dominicans.

A true, properly conservative reform would have preserved these proper texts, not removed and replaced them - true, adopting a new arrangement of the psalms, in order that all the psalms be prayed far more often, was a reform that did require providing new antiphons for psalms previously without them (for at the old form of Matins, the psalms were said in pairs, with only one antiphon each), but that certainly did not require that antiphons already existing be deleted.

I recall from A. A. King's Liturgies of the Religious Orders that these, and the many other changes made to the Dominican Breviary in slavish imitation of the Roman Breviary, elicited outrage in the Order, to the extent that requests addressed to the Master General for indults to continue privately reciting the older editions poured in, even though that entailed saying a longer daily Office.  However, in choir these innovations had perforce to be adopted.  By the fifties and sixties, very few friars remained who remembered these changes, which must have been profoundly felt by those who lived through them.

In retrospect, these changes to the Breviary were but steps toward the ultimate abandonment by the Order of its own proper liturgy, effected at the 1968 General Chapter of River Forest (whose risible name well sums up its effects, especially as held in those days of madness directly after the Council, and in the same year as much secular nonsense).  The insatiable desire to do all as Rome does led to the abandonment of the older focus on the more monastic aspects of the Dominican patrimony, of which these changes to the Vesper psalm antiphons is a small but significant part.

For the record, here is the detailed breakdown for such as love liturgical minutiæ:

Vesper Antiphons in pre- and post-Pian reform Dominican Breviaries

Here, "same" means the same antiphon was retained (in all cases, these are the same as their Roman equivalents); "shorter" means that the old Dominican antiphon was shorter than the Roman, but was recognizably similar to it (every one of them was replaced by the corresponding Roman antiphon); and "different" means that the old Dominican was different to the Roman antiphon (many of these were the same as the antiphons used in the Benedictine Breviary - again, all of these antiphons were replaced with the corresponding antiphons in the new Roman Breviary).

Sunday (2 same, 1 shorter, 2 different):

Ps 109 – same antiphon

Ps 110 – different: old O.P. antiphon was Fidelia omnia mandata ejus, confirmata in sæculum sæculi.  (Same as the Benedictine.)

Ps 111 – shorter: old O.P. antiphon was In mandatis ejus cupit nimis. (Same as the Benedictine.)

Ps 112 – same antiphon

Ps 113 – different: old O.P. antiphon was Nos qui vivimus, benedicimus Dño. (Same as the Benedictine.)

Monday (2 same, 2 shorter, 1 different):

Ps 114 – same antiphon

Ps 115 – different: old O.P. antiphon was Credidi, propter quod locutus sum. (Same as the Benedictine.)

Ps 116 – moved to Monday Lauds; same antiphon

Ps 119 – shorter: old O.P. antiphon was Clamavi, et exaudivit me (excl. Dñs). (Same as the Benedictine, but there used at None on weekdays.)

Ps 120 – shorter: old O.P. antiphon was Auxilium meum a Dño. (No Benedictine antiphon for this psalm.)

Tuesday (2 same, 3 different):

*Ps 121 – different: old O.P. antiphon was In domum Dñi lætantes ibimus. (No Benedictine antiphon for this psalm.)

Ps 122 – same antiphon (Same as Benedictine, but there used at Sext on weekdays.)

Ps 123 – same antiphon (No Benedictine antiphon for this psalm.)

Ps 124 – different: old O.P. antiphon was Benefac, Dñe, bonis, et rectis corde. (No Benedictine antiphon for this psalm.)

Ps 125 – different: old O.P. antiphon was Facti sumus sicut consolati. (No Benedictine antiphon for this psalm.)

Wednesday (2 same, 3 different):

*Ps 126 – different: old O.P. antiphon was Beatus vir, qui implevit desiderium suum. (No Benedictine antiphon for this psalm.)

Ps 127 – same antiphon (Same as Benedictine, but there used at None on weekdays)

Ps 128 – different: old O.P. antiphon was Benediximus vobis in nomine Dñi. (Not Benedictine.)

Ps 129 – same antiphon

Ps 130 – different: old O.P. antiphon was Speret Israël in Dño. (Same as Benedictine.)

Thursday (2 shorter, 3 different):

*Ps 131 – different: old O.P. antiphon was Et omnis mansuetudinis ejus. (Same as the Benedictine.)

Ps 132 – shorter: old O.P. antiphon was Ecce quam bonum, et quam jucundum! (Not Benedictine)

Ps 134 – moved to Tuesday Lauds; different: old O.P. antiphon was Omnia quæcumque voluit, Dñs fecit. (Same as Benedictine.)

**Ps 135 – shorter: old O.P. antiphon was Quoniam in æternum misericordia ejus. (Same as the Benedictine.)

Ps 136 – different: old O.P. antiphon was Hymnum cantate nobis de canticis Sion. (Same as the Benedictine.)

Friday (2 same, 3 different):

*Ps 137 – different: old O.P. antiphon was In conspectu Angelorum psallam tibi Deus meus. (Same as the Benedictine.)

**Ps 138 – same antiphon (as the first for this psalm when divided)

Ps 139 – different: old O.P. antiphon was A viro iniquo libera me Dñe. (Same as the Benedictine.)

Ps 140 – same antiphon

Ps 141 – different: old O.P. antiphon was Portio mea, Dñe, sit in terra viventium. (Same as the Benedictine.)

Saturday (3 same, 2 different):

**Ps 143 – different: old O.P. antiphon was Benedictus Dñs Deus meus. (Same as the Benedictine.)

***Ps 144 – different: old O.P. antiphon was In æternum, et in sæculum sæculi. (Not Benedictine.)

Ps 145 – moved to Wednesday Lauds; same antiphon

Ps 146 – moved to Thursday Lauds; same antiphon

Ps 147 – moved to Friday Lauds; same antiphon

* This psalm was moved to the day before.

** This psalm was split into two parts.

*** This psalm was split into three parts.