Music Faculty Books

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  Guide for Celebrating the Liturgy of the Hours

  Anthony Ruff OSB

  Throughout the history of the Church, Christians have consecrated time by pausing at various moments throughout the day to pray the Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office. Day after day, hour after hour, Christians unite their hearts with Christ and his Church as they pray the Divine Office. This book will assist parish communities and groups of Christians who wish to gather to pray the Liturgy of the Hours.

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  Canticum Novum: Gregorian Chant for Today's Choirs

  Anthony Ruff OSB

  The book contains 100 hymns and antiphons with psalm verses for every season and occasion. Word-by-word English translations of the Latin responses are provided to aid the singers’ understanding. The psalm verses are in Latin and English on facing pages with easy-to-follow pointing to match the psalm tones. The English psalm verses are from the Revised Grail Psalms. A demonstration recording of chants from Canticum novum is also available.

  Primarily Latin antiphons with psalm verses; with nine strophic hymns. Chants shown in four-line notation, five-line notation, and lineless neumes of the St. Gall school.

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  Sung Gospels for Major Solemnities in Multiple Voices

  Anthony Ruff OSB

  Proclaim the gospel in song for Christmas, Easter, Epiphany, Pentecost, solemnities, and other special feast days with these settings written for two- or three-part voices, adapted for the English language from settings found in medieval manuscripts. These settings are ideal to make the gospel the high point of the Liturgy of the Word.

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  Responsorial Psalms for Weekday Mass: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter

  Anthony Ruff OSB

  In Responsorial Psalms for Weekday Mass: Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter, Father Anthony Ruff, OSB, offers a simple chanted setting and makes it possible for the responsorial psalm to be sung at every daily Mass during the seasons of the liturgical year. These responsorial psalms were conceived for unaccompanied singing led by a single cantor, but keyboard accompaniments and guitar chords are provided for those who desire it.

  The melodic settings use the eight Gregorian chant modes, as found in the psalm tones of Saint Meinrad Archabbey. Type melodies, one for each mode, are employed repeatedly for varying antiphon texts, making it easier for cantor and congregation to pick up the antiphon melodies. The psalm verses are provided in two translations, the New American Bible translation of the United States Lectionary for Mass and the Grail translation, as revised in 1983 for inclusive human language. This unique collection of psalm music allows us to celebrate the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter more fully.

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  Sacred Music and Liturgical Reform: Treasures and Transformations

  Anthony Ruff OSB

  Sacred Music and Liturgical Reform is a high-level study of liturgical music in the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Anthony Ruff, a preeminent scholar of liturgical music, proposes a hermeneutic for understanding the Second Vatican Council's teachings on worship music: a balanced 'inconsistency' rather than absolutist and rationalistic coherence. Ruff's focus in this study is on preservation and renewal, arising from the Council's decrees mandating, on the one hand, the preservation of the inherited treasury of sacred music (the thesaurus musicae sacrae), and, on the other hand, the adaptation and expansion of this treasury to meet the changed requirements of the reformed liturgy. Sacred Music and Liturgical Reform, with an extensive index essential for any student of liturgical music, also explores controversies surrounding liturgical music and provides a historical context for the musical changes in the Church. Drawing on the musical and liturgical history that led up to and informed the statements of the Council, Ruff offers a centrist interpretation of Vatican II's teachings on worship music and in the process seeks to reclaim and redefine the 'center.' This is an essential text for all professors and students of liturgical music, as well as music directors.Anthony Ruff, OSB, is a member of the Music Subcommittee of the Bishop's Committee on Liturgy and has numerous articles published in Antiphon, The Hymn, and Pastoral Music, among others. Father Ruff is currently an assistant professor of theology and liturgical music at St. John's University.