Liturgical Books

Liturgical Music Books

Liber Hymnarius

Contains the hymns of the Divine Office for the seasons and solemnities. The great corpus of chant office hymns under one cover. Includes a ribbon bookmark.

This 1983 “hymn book” has all the Office hymns, which are now identical for the Roman and the Benedictine office. The melodies are restored to their original form, as are the texts, as called for by the Second Vatican Council. (If one is singing a well-known hymn such as Conditor alme siderum or Veni, Creator Spiritus in Latin or English, it would be best to use the melodic version of the Liber Hymnarius.) Especially important is the revised four-line notation of this book and the explanation of it (in Latin) in the foreword. The revised notation conveys much of the subtlety of the early neumes, and it makes clear that chant should be sung with the flexibility of speech-based rhythm rather than with equal rhythmic values. This revised notation will no doubt be employed when the reformed Roman antiphonale and the revised Graduale Romanum finally appear.