The Monastic Diurnal Noted

The Monastic Diurnal Noted is a complete Gregorian Antiphonal in English, containing all the Antiphons, Hymn Tunes, and Responsories of the Day Hours of the Benedictine Divine Office (the seven canonical Hours, excluding the midnight office of Matins).

This high quality reprint combines the two original volumes into one single volume. The first volume includes the music of Vespers, the Little Hours and Lauds of Great Feasts. The second volume includes the music of Sunday and Ferial Lauds, with Matins of the Sacred Triduum and Matins of the Dead.

The Monastic Diurnal Noted is the brilliant work of the Very Rev’d Canon Winfred Douglas, the renowned English church musician and pioneer of adapting Gregorian plainchant to English. Both volumes were prepared posthumously by the Sisters of the Community of Saint Mary. This reprint is a photographic reproduction of the original editions of 1952 and 1960.

Please Note – This volume, The Monastic Diurnal Noted, is distinct from The Monastic Diurnal, first published in 1932 by Oxford University Press (currently being reprinted by Lancelot Andrewes Press). The Noted volume is actually a Gregorian chant companion to the Oxford University Press text.

From the Preface to the new reprint edition, by Mother Miriam, CSM:

“Sister Hildegarde in the Western Province of the Community of St. Mary and Sr. Benedicta in the Eastern Province worked closely with Canon Douglas up until his death in 1944 to perfect his English adaptation of the timeless Latin plainsong. Sister Hildegarde finished the musical notation of the 1952 Monastic Diurnal. All the calligraphy was done with a simple Osmiroid pen. With the patience of an ancient monastic scribe she made each page a work of prayer and careful craftmanship so that the contemplative tradition of singing the psalms unaccompanied might continue in the vernacular. Thanks to Lancelot Andrewes Press and modern technology, both Canon Douglas’ scholarship and artful adaptation of language and music to English singing and even Sister Hildegarde’s penstrokes are being preserved … It is the continued prayer of the Community of St. Mary that those who use this book along with St. Dunstan’s Plainsong Psalter will be blessed by standing in the ancient monastic stream of grace….”