Customer Reviews

The Mundelein Psalter

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's really nice to have an English language version of the Church's Morning, Evening, and Night prayer set up for chanting. I have been using this personally since June of 2007 and started using it with few others in September. We sing Morning Prayer in the campus church on weekday mornings.

All the music is in chant notation, which is not difficult to figure out if you already read modern notation. Look for some web-page guides if you need help. With a good leader, no one else needs to have a musical background to participate. I find it helps to play the hymn tunes before we start and to play the modes before each psalm or canticle -- a least for the first several weeks.

The shortcomings I have found with the Psalter are the lack of an Invitatory and the associated antiphons and an incomplete hymnal. There is a hymnal in the back of the book, but it doesn't include pieces for the commons and it has a shortened format for hymns of Advent/Christmas and Lent/Easter. There is talk that they might publish a hymnal to accompany the Psalter. I hope they do and that it is "robust." The English translations of the hymns are well done, given that they have to fit the meter of the Latin text. It is very nice that they are from the typical edition and match the particular hour. Listen to the audio files on the Psalter web site if you need help learning the hymns.

These criticisms aside, if you really want to chant Morning, Evening, and Night prayer in English, this book is a blessing! I now use it almost exclusively instead of my 4 volume Liturgy of the Hours.

This has become my favorite breviary. It solves almost all the problems that other breviaries have. Much more than a psalter, it is, in my opinion, unfortunately named. Contains complete offices for Morning & Evening, plus Compline. Does NOT contain midday or terce/sext/none nor vigils/Office of Readings.

The two best things about it are the layout and the chant notation.

Re: layout, you can pray with a minimum of page flipping (one ribbon in the Proper of Seasons, and one ribbon in the Psalter is all I need). Benedictus & Magnificat are on separate note cards (including the chant notation). Using the Proper of Saints is a bit more complicated because of the several commons, but even then there is less page flipping than some other manuals. There are 3 ribbons and a notecard to help keep place.

Re: chant notation: uses simple chants (reciting note plus 2 or 3 note cadence in square neume notation and simple italics pointing). Best of all, all the notation is right where you need it, at the beginning of each psalm. No need to flip to an index and pick out the right tune. Hymnal at the back of book contains notation, or you can recite the hymns within the text without notation. Compared to, for example, Monastic Diurnal Revised or St Helena Breviary, Monastic Edition, the chant in Mundelein Psalter is far easier.

Uses standard 4-week catholic cycle of psalms, with extensive antiphons. A heading at the top of each week in proper of seasons tells you which psalm week to use, making it easier to keep up. No complicated tables or counting required. Proper of Seasons contains readings, responsory, canticle antiphons, wonderful intercessions, and collect. The collect varies each day, so you are not using the same one for the whole week.

The length of the office is medium -- a hymn, psalm, canticle, psalm, reading, responsory, gospel canticle, intercessions, and collect. Compared to, e.g. MDR with its 5 psalms and 2 readings per office, it is much shorter.

There is a week's worth of compline, with I Sunday being the "traditional" version. Antiphons to the virgin (latin) are on separate section, which requires a page flip. Sadly, no notation for it! Also, there is no prayer of confession in compline, which is disappointing.

There is no invitatory/psalm 95, but you can download one from their website and paste it into the front of the book.

The only complaint I have is that, since it uses the standard catholic 4-week cycle, not every psalm is represented.

This is a great book to have if you are interested in chanting the Divine Office. One may complain that this psalter does not include the office of readings or the daytime offices, but the reasoning behind choosing only the morning, evening, and night prayers is easily understood in light of the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours (GILH No. 272). But, what this book does contain is wonderful. I pray these hours exclusivley using this psalter.

There are some things I'd point out to a prospective buyer. First, I get the impression that at times The Mundelein Psalter assumes one has some knowlege of, or at least access to, the rubrics of the Liturgy of the Hours and the Roman calendar. I have the 4 volume Liturgy of the Hours, which contains these, and once or twice I've found myself having to refer to them. I would not let this dissuade anyone from buying this book. It does contain the General Instruction of the Liturgy of the Hours, which will answer 95% or more of your questions. It's only some of the little nuances that pop up in special seasons, such as the Triduum, that aren't clarified as well as they could be. A lay person, however, should not worry about these things, but for someone from whom the Church expects a bit more care in praying the liturgy (ordained, religious, perhaps even seminarians) it might prove slighly inconvenient.

The hymnal is a little limited, and it's not unheard of that I have to just receite the hymn due to there not being any chant notation. This most frequently happens on days for which there is a proper office, such as a solemnity. What annoyed me more was the lack of any notation for the Latin Marian antiphons. If you are interested in these though, I would simply recommend searching online for open source Gregorian notation for these. I did this and found them easily. I printed them out on a single page and use it as an insert. What I found were the traditional modes, and so they are not as simple as the Mundelein modes, but they are not difficult to figure out.

There's very little flipping involved in general. The three ribbons are very nice, but one more would have been optimal in my opinion. I do, however, find it a bit inconvient that in some places the chant notation is not printed there on the page requiring a little extra flipping. The particular mode to be used for responsories, intercession, and concluding prayers is simply listed by a letter designation. The reasoning for this is that chanting thse parts of the office are secondary to chanting the psalms. All the modes are found in the front of the book, and so if you want to chant the entire office, one has to flip to the front to see the notation for the responsories, intercessions, and concluding prayer... that is at least until you've memorized the mode for those to parts. It really only took me two weeks before I found myself no longer having to refer to the front list.

Those things aside, definitely do check out their website and listen to their audio files. They really help give you a feel for the notation. And if you're anything like me, don't be surprised if find yourself creating your own modes as you become more and more comfortable with chanting. Of course, such creativity may not always be possible in a communal setting, but when I have to chant alone, I find it adds more depth to my praise.

This is a wonderful book. Don't let anything I've said above turn you away even a bit from buying The Mundelein Psalter. If you have any interest in actually chanting the Divine Office in English, this will not disappoint. I love chanting it so much I even often wish there were chant notation for the short readings themselves, sort of the like how the Gospel is chanted at papal Masses in St. Peter's.

I have been looking for a version of the main Offices for lay people, that allows for chanting in the vernacular that is simple enough for someone who is not a music major to learn easily and beautiful enough for you to want to do so. This is the best that I have come across for Lauds, Vespers and Compline. The hymns are traditional Latin monastic hymns, with translations in English and both the original and the translation can be sung using the traditional tune, which is given. These alone are worth buying the book for. We have one for each day of the cycle for each Office, with additional hymns for the season.
The psalms are pointed for chanting and the tones are simple. The tones were composed for the English and are certainly usable, but I would still have preferred tones that were closer to the familiar plainchant used in Latin. There are still times when the pointing leads you into placing a musical emphasis on syllables that wouldn't be emphasised strongly if you were speaking naturally. It's a shame that he didn't work out some chants that follow the pointing of the Grail psalms that are in the English version and which picks out the emphasised syllables pretty well.
The short responsory and the prayers can be chanted too, and the chant offered for these is very good for the purpose.
The other great plus is the that the presentation has been very cleverly thought out so that its use demands less hopping backwards and forwards from ordinaries to propers during each Office than in any other version I have come across.

This breviary is one I purchased based on a recommendation.

It is beautifully printed and bound, and unlike many breviaries available it includes music notation for the offices and psalmody. (This is in plainchant notation.) Obviously intended for communal use, it is equally usable by the individual wishing to pray Morning, Evening and Night Prayer.

One of the treats is the use of the traditional office hymns for the hours.

Being a single volume, some page flipping is required as items such as the Gospel Canticles, or Office Hymns are not printed for each Hour, but a card with the Canticles is provided, and the hymnody is not usually many pages away.

Well worth purchasing and taking the time to enjoy - as well as pray!

I love this book. I often sing Gregorian chant in our church choir,but cannot read music on my own. However, this book gives just enough guidance for me to be able to begin chanting the Office from the day I received it. The book has a few drawbacks, most of which others have already mentioned. There is a serious lack of hymns in the hymn section, which is especially important because one is often instructed to sing a hymn using a particular type of tune, but in some cases no example of another familiar hymn using that tune is given. This may be because the book is intended for congregational use, and therefore the regular parish hymnal could be a source for tunes. Also, an index for hymns is sorely needed. Latin hymns are interspersed throughout the text, and sometimes I would like to use one of these as an alternate for a given day, but cannot find what page it is on without an index.

The book is beautifully produced. It is, admittedly, a bit unwieldy, but again, it is designed for congregational use. Which brings me to my next point, which is not a complaint but rather a hope: I usually pray the Office alone, and would love a more compact edition (with a more complete section of hymns so I don't need a separate hymnal) for personal use. A flexible cover (leather or simulated leather) would be preferable to a hardback, with gilded pages not only for beauty but also to disguise finger smudges; my current edition's pure white pages will not stay that way for long! And it would be nice if such a volume fit into a standard breviary cover. An edition of this book with the other hours of the Office would be a dream come true, even if only one Daytime hour; I find myself sad when Morning Prayer is over and I must wait until evening to use thiis book again!

I am very pleased with this book overall. It has made my praying of the Office slower and more meditative. I am now "praying" the Office instead of "reading" (racing through) the office. It was a brilliant idea to create this perfect alternative to the standard Liturgy of the Hours. I think the book is a bargain for the price, so I'll be happy to upgrade whenever the revised breviary comes out.

St. Augustine said, "He whos sings, prays twice". The Mundelein Psalter is a great way to dedicate the day to God with easy to sing and follow psalms, prayers, canticles, readings, responses, and intercessions. A definite must have for the person who wants to offer up to God praise and thanksgiving.

I wasw so happy to purchase a copy for myself and some friends this Christmas. Thank you for the prompt service!