This booklet arose from a Week of Prayer at Exeter Cathedral in 2021. Between Sunday 26 September and Saturday 2 October, Fr George Guiver CR and Sr Elizabeth Jane CSMV shared their prayer insights and practices with the Cathedral community. In particular, Fr George shared with us a list of psalms that could be recited day by day each month.
In our last meeting, when the participants came together in the round to reflect on the week and think about what next, a number expressed the desire for a simple way of chanting the psalms. So I combined the list of psalms from Fr George with the psalm pointing used by CSMV to create the booklet. Please get in touch to find out more.
This was originally intended as a draft version, and I invite feedback on your experience of using the chant. Please post any comments below. For example, does it need to be simplified further with fewer chants? For psalms on more than one page, would it be helpful to have the chant repeated at the top of the page? If you plan to print it, one option is to use the Booklet setting in Adobe Reader, together with double-sided printing flipping on the short edge. The text may be a little small, as I was planning to increase the size in the final version together with any other changes. In the way of these things, the draft has become the de facto final version, at least for the moment.
Sources:
- © Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England (2000) (including the Psalter as published with Common Worship)
https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/daily-prayer/psalter#na (using Psalm 8b) - Sarum tones, as used by CSMV
http://chantblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-sarum-psalm-tones-in-square-notes.html - Meinrad 2021 font for chant and Melody font for modern notation
https://www.saintmeinrad.org/the-monastery/liturgical-music/chant-fonts/