Blessed Hermann the Cripple

Blessed Hermannus, whose feast day is kept in some Benedictine houses on September 25, is usually called “Hermann the Cripple” or “the Lame” in English, but his Latin appellation “Contractus - the deformed” (literally ‘the contracted one’) is really more accurate, as is so often the case with Latin. The combination of congenital defects from which he suffered made him “not simply a cripple, but ... practically helpless”, writes Alban Butler. Born in 1013 to a noble family in Swabia, modern southern Germany, he survived childhood by some miracle of God’s providence, and was entrusted at the age of seven to the Benedictine abbey on Reichenau Island on the lake of Constance. He was professed at the age of twenty, and lived as a monk for twenty years more.

Although he was barely able to move without assistance, he was a polymath and a genius, well-versed in theology, music, astronomy, mathematics, Latin, Greek and Arabic. Students came to learn from him from many parts of Europe, and his intellectual achievements were such that he was known as the wonder of his age. Among his works are the earliest surviving medieval chronicle of the whole of human history, and a treatise on mathematics and astronomy; he was also able somehow to build both musical and astronomical instruments. Above all, however, his name will live in blessed remembrance as that of the composer of the Marian antiphons Alma Redemptoris Mater and Salve Regina. His cultus was officially approved by the Holy See in 1863. Beate Hermanne, ora pro nobis!

A manuscript illustration of one of Bl. Herman’s treatises on astronomy.

A New Video from Clear Creek Abbey about the Salve Regina

To close out the octave of Our Lady’s Assumption, here is a great video recently posted to the Youtube channel of Clear Creek Abbey about the Salve Regina, which gives a bit of an explanation of the text and the music, as well as some interesting historical information about its composition, ending with a very nice rendition of the simple version.

And here is the video which they produced a few months ago in a very similar vein about the Regina Caeli.

And for good measure, a splendid setting of the Magnificat by the Netherlandish composer Alexander Agricola (1445-1506).

Blessed Hermann the Cripple

Blessed Hermannus, whose feast day is kept in some Benedictine houses on September 25, is usually called “Hermann the Cripple” or “the Lame” in English, but his Latin appellation “Contractus - the deformed” (literally ‘the contracted one’) is really more accurate, as is so often the case with Latin. The combination of congenital defects from which he suffered made him “not simply a cripple, but ... practically helpless”, writes Alban Butler. Born in 1013 to a noble family in Swabia, modern southern Germany, he survived childhood by some miracle of God’s providence, and was entrusted at the age of seven to the Benedictine abbey on Reichenau Island on the lake of Constance. He was professed at the age of twenty, and lived as a monk for twenty years more.

Although he was barely able to move without assistance, he was a polymath and a genius, well-versed in theology, music, astronomy, mathematics, Latin, Greek and Arabic. Students came to learn from him from many parts of Europe, and his intellectual achievements were such that he was known as the wonder of his age. Among his works are the earliest surviving medieval chronicle of the whole of human history, and a treatise on mathematics and astronomy; he was also able somehow to build both musical and astronomical instruments. Above all, however, his name will live in blessed remembrance as that of the composer of the Marian antiphons Alma Redemptoris Mater and Salve Regina. His cultus was officially approved by the Holy See in 1863. Beate Hermanne, ora pro nobis!

A manuscript illustration of one of Bl. Herman’s treatises on astronomy.

Organum Arrangements of the Salve Regina by Mark Emerson Donnelly

About two months ago, we shared a Renaissance polyphonic version of the Regina caeli arranged by composer Mark Emerson Donnelly, director of music at Holy Family, the FSSP parish in Vancouver, British Columbia. Now that we are in the last and longest part of the liturgical year, the time after Pentecost, the daily Marian antiphon has switched to the Salve Regina, and we thank Mr Donnelly once again, this time for sharing with us his two arrangements of it.

(Tenor/Bass & full choir, sung by OFFERTORIUM; for a PDF of the score, click here. Performance notes in the description on YouTube.)

From his recent newsletter: “After the Ave Maria, the most famous and well-beloved prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary is the Salve Regina. As with the Ave, the Salve is both recited by Catholics in their native tongues and also sung in Latin to medieval Gregorian melodies. Though beautifully set to some very ornate, solemn and monastic tunes, the Simple Tone of the Salve Regina is, by far, the most popular.

The Salve Regina is the last of the four seasonal Marian antiphons sung over the liturgical year, prescribed for the Time after Pentecost. In that respect, it is kind of the perennial Marian antiphon, as we live in a perpetual time after that first Pentecost.

Although the Simple Tones of the four Marian Antiphons tend to be syllabic (one note per syllable of text), the ‘O dulcis’ at the end of the Salve provides a rare opportunity to employ a bit of polyphony in my Organum Novi Mundi style.

Since the Salve is the longest of the four, I chose to alternate two-part organum with four-part sections. My original thought was to alternate tenor & bass with full choir. However, if some ensembles wish to sing SATB throughout, I have doubled the tenor & bass parts in the soprano & alto. It is also possible to sing alternating SA with SATB, as below.

(Soprano/Alto & full choir, sung by OFFERTORIUM; for a PDF of the score, click here. Performance notes in the description on YouTube.)

On a curious note, it wasn’t until I was writing this newsletter that I realized I wrote the Organum Novi Mundi for two of the Marian antiphons, Ave Regina Coelorum & Regina Caeli, in the same year, 2001, and the remaining two, Salve Regina & Alma Redemptoris Mater, also in the same year, fifteen years later in 2016.”

Blessed Hermann the Cripple

Blessed Hermannus, whose feast day is kept in some Benedictine houses on September 25, is usually called “Hermann the Cripple” or “the Lame” in English, but his Latin appellation “Contractus - the deformed” (literally ‘the contracted one’) is really more accurate, as is so often the case with Latin. The combination of congenital defects from which he suffered made him “not simply a cripple, but ... practically helpless”, writes Alban Butler. Born in 1013 to a noble family in Swabia, modern southern Germany, he survived childhood by some miracle of God’s providence, and was entrusted at the age of seven to the Benedictine abbey on Reichenau Island on the lake of Constance. He was professed at the age of twenty, and lived as a monk for twenty years more.

Although he was barely able to move without assistance, he was a polymath and a genius, well-versed in theology, music, astronomy, mathematics, Latin, Greek and Arabic. Students came to learn from him from many parts of Europe, and his intellectual achievements were such that he was known as the wonder of his age. Among his works are the earliest surviving medieval chronicle of the whole of human history, and a treatise on mathematics and astronomy; he was also able somehow to build both musical and astronomical instruments. Above all, however, his name will live in blessed remembrance as that of the composer of the Marian antiphons Alma Redemptoris Mater and Salve Regina. His cultus was officially approved by the Holy See in 1863. Beate Hermanne, ora pro nobis!

A manuscript illustration of one of Bl. Herman’s treatises on astronomy.

The Carthusian Salve Regina

I just happened to stumble across this recording of the Salve Regina sung by monks of the Grande Chartreuse, the mother house of the Carthusian Order. It is accompanied by a number of pictures, including several stills from the famous movie Into Great Silence; the last minute and a half seems to be the soundtrack of one of the best parts of the film, when the monks go sledding. Note that there are a few differences from the text of the Roman version; it begins “Salve, Regina misericordiae, vitae dulcedo - Hail, Queen of Mercy, the sweetness of life,” and the word “Virgo” is omitted at the end. Note also the slowness and simplicity of the chant, even though this is the more solemn version of the Salve Regina, typical of the austerity of Carthusian life in all of its aspects.

Blessed Herman the Cripple

Blessed Hermannus, whose feast day is kept in some Benedictine houses on September 25, is usually called “Hermann the Cripple” or “the Lame” in English, but his Latin appellation “Contractus - the deformed” (literally ‘the contracted one’) is really more accurate, as is so often the case with Latin. The combination of congenital defects from which he suffered made him “not simply a cripple, but ... practically helpless”, writes Alban Butler. Born in 1013 to a noble family in Swabia, modern southern Germany, he survived childhood by some miracle of God’s providence, and was entrusted at the age of seven to the Benedictine abbey on Reichenau Island on the lake of Constance. He was professed at the age of twenty, and lived as a monk for twenty years more. Although he was barely able to move without assistance, he was a polymath and a genius, well-versed in theology, music, astronomy, mathematics, Latin, Greek and Arabic. Students came to learn from him many parts of Europe, and his intellectual achievements were such that he was known as the wonder of his age. Among his works are the earliest surviving medieval chronicle of the whole of human history, and a treatise on mathematics and astronomy; he was also able somehow to build both musical and astronomical instruments. Above all, however, his name will live in blessed remembrance as that of the composer of the Marian antiphons Alma Redemptoris Mater and Salve Regina. His cultus was officially approved by the Holy See in 1863. Beate Hermanne, ora pro nobis!

A manuscript illustration of one of Bl. Herman’s treatises on astronomy.

A beautiful Salve Regina from the Sarum Processional

Whilst at the Musica Sacra Colloquium in Salt Lake City last month, another member of the faculty, Jeffrey Morse, told me about this lovely and unique Salve Regina, with five tropes, from the Sarum Processional of 1502:

On my return from the USA, Felix Yeung, the Pettman Organ Scholar at the London Oratory, kindly agreed to typeset it. Thanks to his exceptional skill in the use of Gregorio software you can freely download the full Sarum Salve Regina as a PDF with red staves (as shown above) or black staves.

Jeffrey Morse writes:

The melody is recognizable as a variant of the "Solemn" tone versions of the Salve found in the Roman, Monastic, Dominican and Cistercian Chant traditions. The unique aspect of this Sarum Salve Regina is the presence of five tropes, or prayers interspersed between the official Latin text, as well as the Latin text itself- O clemens and O pia are followed by O mitis and O pulchra before O dulcis Virgo Maria. The first trope, which would have been sung by cantors, follows ...post hoc exilium ostende and prays, "O Virgin Mother, eternal gate of glory, be for us a refuge in the presence of the Father and the Son" The second trope follows the O clemens- "O merciful Virgin, O kind Virgin, O sweet Virgin, hear the prayers of all who cry to you" Then, following the O pia, the text of the trope becomes more somber, it is Our Lady at the foot of the Cross, "Pour out prayers to your Son who was crucified, wounded, scourged, pierced with thorns, and made to drink gall for us. After O mitis (O gentle), the fourth trope follows- "Glorious Mother of God, whose Son co-exists with the Father, pray for us all who make remembrance of you" The fifth, and final trope follows O pulchra- "Wipe away the faults of the wretched, make clean the defilement of sinners, grant us, through your prayers, the life of the blessed", and then, finally the last and familiar cry to the Virgin, O dulcis Virgo Maria.

You will notice the absence of the familiar dots and episemas of the Solesmes rhythmic editions of the past. One should therefore be particularly mindful of the bar lines and grouping of notes when singing this Salve Regina. Jeffrey Morse adds: 'A knowledge of Dominican and Cistercian chant interpretation would be particularly helpful in that bar lines and spacings of notes dictate lengthening of notes.'

I am most grateful to Jeffrey Morse, Precentor & Master of the Choristers at St Stephen the First Martyr in Sacramento, California for providing an explanation of the tropes.

Medieval Version of the Salve Regina

After my posting about the availability of downloadable files for the Antiphonarium for the Liturgy of the Hours in Dominican chant, which I decorated with the page for the Salve Regina from the Poissy Antiphonal, a reader reminded me that the text in that manuscript does not match the version of the Salve Regina in use in the Dominican Order or in the Roman Church today. And I thought some comments on this might be of interest to readers since the Salve Regina is perhaps the most beloved chant of the Dominican Order and much loved by all Catholics.

To the right you can see the folio 935v of the Poissy Antiphonal. This manuscript is accessible on line at Latrobe University in Australia. This manuscript belonged to a convent of Dominican nuns in France. It was transcribed in the period 1335-1345 and is a "certified" Dominican Antiphonal. That means that it was not only written by the medieval Dominican method of painting the neumes using an authorized stencil, but that the music was sung through by two friars or sisters using the "new" book against two other friars or sisters using an older "certified" book. This made sure that all medieval Dominican chant books were absolutely identical. No other medieval chant books of any other musical tradition were so perfectly identical. I have reviewed this so that you can all be sure that this is music is exactly as the medieval Dominicans chanted it.

Even a non-paleographer can see that in the first line of the Salve of this manuscript the modern version's word "Mater" is absent. This is the original form of the Salve Regina, as found in all the medieval chant and manuscript traditions. The word "Mater" was only added in the sixteenth century. Those who know the polyphonic music of Orlande de Lassus (ca, 1532-1594) may have sung his setting of the Salve, where this word is missing. You will notice how smoothly the chant moves from "regina" to "misericordiae." The original form, very medieval in piety, was thus: "Hail Queen of Mercy."

At the right, we see the next page of the manuscript, folio 936r. Here you can see another place were the medieval version differs from both the modern Roman and the Dominican versions. The word "Virgo" is absent, and so the last line of the antiphon reads simply: O dulcis Maria. The immediate focus on the Holy Name is also very medieval. The alleluia, which has exactly the same chant as the version sung by modern Dominicans during Easter Time, follows. This addition of "Virgo" to the original chant of the Salve seems to have appeared in the thirteenth century, but, again, the Dominicans, typically traditional about chant and text, did not add it until much later. In fact, this manuscript, where as you can seen in faint addition on the previous page's left margin has "Mater" and the altered music added in a sixteenth-century hand, does not have any suggestion that "Virgo" should be added at this point. A comprehensive study of the manuscripts and early printed editions of the Dominican Salve would have to be done, but I suspect that the medieval version of the Dominican Salve did not receive these textual and musicial changes until the 1600s. Perhaps during the Romanizing reforms of 1604.

A PDF file with this medieval version of the Salve may be downloaded here. I would wonder if Dominican readers think that we should restore, at least for occasional use, the Salve as it was sung from the time of Humbert's standardization of the liturgy in 1254 until the Post-Reformation period, which was also the way that St. Thomas, St. Catherine, and St. Vincent Ferrer, and probably Our Holy Father Dominic actually sang it?

Dominican Compline II: The Processions

Before I describe the ceremonies at the end of Compline in the Dominican Rite and the Liturgy of the Hours according to Dominican use, here is a link to a video of the Salve Procession at San Clemente in Rome, the Irish Dominicans, accompanied, on this occasion, by some visitors who can be recognized as they are not in Dominican habits. You will note how the procession moves from choir to the people's part of the church, has the genuflection at the traditional time, and the sprinkling with Holy Water.

Although Dominican Compline is musically and liturgically well known, perhaps even more famous is the procession by which it is traditionally followed. The institution of the singing of the Salve Regina after Compline, according to Bl. Jordan of Saxony, who witnessed the events, occurred in the Dominican priory of Bologna about 1221. A Brother Bernard had been tormented by doubts and temptations. Jordan, then Master of the Order, decided that the community would invoke the help of the Blessed Virgin through a penitential procession while singing the antiphon Salve Regina after Compline. Bernard was immediately freed of his tribulations and the practice was spontaneously imitated in Lombardy and then throughout the entire Order. The sprinkling of the friars with Holy Water by the prior or hebdomadarian was added at this time or soon after.

The Salve Regina (see Dominican version to the right), sung after Compline, is not original to the Dominicans. The Dominican melody is part of a family of twelfth-century variants on a more ancient melody, of which the solemn Roman-Benedictine, the Carthusian, and others are also examples. The antiphon itself dates to the late eleventh century and was in common use first among Benedictines and Cistercians. The Cistercians already used it as processional chant, before or after chapter meetings, in the 1210s. But its use for a procession to the people's part of the church is distinctively Dominican. Traditionally, in the Dominican Rite, the antiphon for the Virgin after Compline never varies, but is always the Salve Regina, but an alleluia is added to it and ti the verses following it during Easter time.

The ritual of the Salve Procession is as follows. On every day of the year (except Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of Holy Week) two acolytes, wearing surplices and carrying candlesticks with lighted candles, took up their positions before the altar. For the intoning of the Salve, the entire community fell to their knees and remained kneeling until the word "Salve" had been finished; then the friars rose and went in procession behind the two acolytes to the outer church of the laity. There the brethren knelt in place facing the altar or shrine and were sprinkled with holy water by the hebdomadarian. By the late middle ages, the custom was introduced of the community also kneeling at the words: Eia ergo advocata nostra. The antiphon ended, the acolytes sang the versicle: Dignare me laudare te, Virgo sacrata; to which the community responded: Da mihi virtutem contra hostes tuos. The final prayer Concede nos was the sung by the hebdomadarian.

By the fourteenth century, it become a common practice to sing the antiphon O lumen Ecclesiae, the Magnificat antiphon of the feast of St. Dominic, while returning in procession to the choir. The procession ended with the verses and the collect of St. Dominic. Like the Salve, this antiphon and its verses had alleluias in Easter time. But its use was never absolute. Some provinces and houses substituted the antiphon of another saint for the O Lumen.

Those interested in the way medieval music was put together will find the thirteenth-century antiphon O Lumen to have interesting similarity to another well-known piece of chant:


This kind of borrowing was very common in the middle ages, and in the modern period.

There are two other processions traditionally attached to Compline. The first, and best known, is the interpolation between the Salve and O Lumen of a Procession to the Holy Rosary Altar or shrine, while singing the Litany of Loreto. This procession is early modern in origin. The Litany concluded with the singing of the prosa Inviolata and the collect. In Easter time, the Inviolata was replaced by the Regina Caeli, sung to a Dominican version of the solemn tone. The other procession was on the first Tuesday of the month and also placed between the Salve and O Lumen. This is the Procession to the Altar of St. Dominic, during the singing of the prolix responsory O spem miram, which is taken from Matins of the saint. There two are not the only processions that local priories and provinces added to Compline, but they are the ones most commonly performed, even today.

Again, these chants have been preserved for use with the new Liturgy of the Hours according to the provisions of the Proprium Ordinis Praedicatorum of 1982. The use of the Salve throughout the year may be maintained, as well as, if desired, the procession and the verses and collect. In addition, provision is made also for the substitution of the famous antiphon Sub tuum presidium or, during Easter time, the Regina Caeli. The Litany on Saturday may also be continued, and an alleluia added to the Inviolata during Easter time. Finally, the traditional freedom of choice for ways of commemorating St. Dominic is preserved. There is the option of singing the O spem miram or the Magne pater, another well-known antiphon from the saint's office, in place of the O Lumen. I have seen all of these options taken, using the original Latin or English adaptions.

These musical options are included in the new Compline Book available for consultation or download at Dominican Liturgy on the sidebar under "Completorii Libellus Novus (2008)." I will soon be posting an update on this booklet. I thank readers who have called typos and errors to my attention. These will soon be corrected and the revised version put up for consultation and download.

And here is a link to an (admittedly truncated) celebration of the Salve Procession at Blackfriars, Oxford, December, 2007, with thanks to Engish Dominican students.