Earthquake



Image courtesy of the
U.S. Geological Survey

Apparently all it takes to stop me blogging about #twitterangelus is a 5.8 earthquake.

It makes sense for me to blog about it, but to be honest, I'm probably not the best person to fill you in on what's happening. As a sojourner in a strange land who also has a 1.5 year-old daughter to worry about, living at a bit of a distance from any kind of family, many of life's little details, including important ones, pass me by: I shall do my best.

So, at the beginning of the year, when there was still a world of snow about, there were some earthquakes here, and now we have a repeat performance. The epicentre was in the same province as us, about 25 miles away. What we experienced was nothing like what's going on at San Felice, but it is too close for comfort. San Felice is in the north whereas we're in the south just before the plain turns into mountains. Immediately to the north of us is the city of Modena, where most of my colleagues work; no damage there that I'm aware of, but they're feeling enough tremors to keep their nerves on edge.

We were just settling down to work in my office when it arrived; oddly I didn't feel anything myself, but I took my cue from my colleagues who were hastening out of the door. I didn't feel anything the second time either. I haven't felt anything for a while now, but there was night when there seemed to be a little quake every 5 minutes; then again, it's hard to tell how much earthquake you're inventing out of nervousness.

All this seismic activity has caught the region on a back foot; the last big event was a medieval one, and though Italy as a country is very much prone to earthquakes, the Emilia-Romagna was considered low-risk until now. A lot of seismologists have been interviewed recently, for obvious reasons, but the best news you will ever hear from an Italian seismologist is "We can't rule out the possibility of further quakes"; unfortunately, that's the peninsula you're dealing with. What's worse is that the quakes at the beginning of the year and these ones don't seem to have the same cause. The earth is busy adjusting itself underneath us, and there's not really any way of telling how it will pan out; the best case scenario is a series of little quakes (many earthquakes aren't even felt) which discharge the latent energy that needs discharging. The fear is that we have another more dramatic event. The region will undoubtedly receive a new risk rating and consequently building requirements; not a lot of help in the short term unfortunately. Monica's Dad however (who does know something about these things; he's been coordinating volunteers from the Province of Ancona from our bedroom - her parents happened to be visiting)

Anyway, here in Sassuolo, we're fine but nervous. Schools have been closed, and our church, San Giorgio, seems to have developed some cracks. You will have seen the something about the worst hit areas elsewhere; besides which, I'm struggling to keep up with events. What I do know is that some are some real bastards about. People, not without reason, don't want to leave their homes, for fear of thieves. Some especially foul people have been impersonating the Protezione Civile (a voluntary emergency relief force, among other things) and telling people to evacuate their homes because of an imminent quake (impossible to predict, btw), specifically so that they can steal from them. Monica's Dad is pretty scandalised by how they're responding here. He read about one village where the parish priest was organising the relief, but it's absurd that the Protezione Civile could allow such a situation to be necessary (he was among the first group of volunteers to arrive, but coming from le Marche, the next region down).

Monica's pretty nervous, especially about the idea of being at home alone with Noemi when her parents leave, so her Mum is prolonging her stay, and we'll be going down to Offagna for a week (I'll be working remotely).

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More #twitterangelus



I know I know...

I shall blog about something else at some point. In any case, I shall be brief. I've been praying with #twitterangelus in Italian, and though no Italians seem to have joined us, some obliging anglophones have been praying in Italian with me.

So, as a gesture of goodwill I offered to make a recording in Italian in an attempt to "incarnate" the prayer a bit. And here it is, rushed off quickly yesterday after Noemi's bedtime and before ours. As always happens when you record yourself, I think it sounds horrible, and I can hear myself fluffing it in various places but never mind.

It's the Angelus proper, as we return to ordinary time soon (Monday?) and leave the Regina Caeli for other times; that's part of the reason I thought I'd do a quick recording now, so people could hear it in advance of praying it.

So that's that. Ta ra.

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• Praying Circles Around Your Children - Mark Batterson

#twitterangelus in italiano



Appeal to anglophones: if you know any Italians on twitter who might be interested in #twitterangelus, please pass on.

Edit: Da quando ho messo su questo post, @marcpuck ha messo su un sito dedicato – www.twitterangelus.org/ – che contiene i testi nelle diverse lingue. Di solito metto un link a quel sito quando twitto.

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#twitterangelus è nato da un "capriccio pio" di @CCFather ("Ben Trovato"); twittando l'inizio dell'Angelus alle 12.00 GMT un giorno, era sopreso a ricevere una risposta da un certo @sitsio, e hanno quindi pregato insieme. Lo stesso giorno, più persone si sono interessati per poi pregare insieme alle 18.00, poi è diventato un appuntamento. Dall'Inghilterra è passata puntualmente agli Stati Uniti.

Sono iscritto a twitter da poco (@MarkTsoapm) ma la preghiera mi ha interessato subito. E' una bella cosa e credo che andrebbe diffuso; non c'è un motivo per cui questa preghiera (pregata virtualmente ma in una communione non meno valida per ciò) della Chiesa universale non dovrebbe diventare un fatto internazionale attraverso un mezzo di communicazione globale, come un bene di per sé ma anche una testimonianza dell'unità nella fede.

Mi piacerebbe tentare di lanciarla in italiano personalmente, ma temo di non potere fare quello; con una bimba di 16 mesi e la famiglia di tutti e due i genitori abbastanza lontani, faccio fatica a trovarmi davanti lo schermo con regolarità. Infatti prego alle 13.00 CEST quando posso con gli altri inglesi perché se no, non ci riesco. C'è anche il fatto che non conosco italiani su twitter, quindi chi mi risponde?

Allora, mi sa che posso solo proporre e agevolare. La proposta ho già fatto. L'agevolazione consisterebbe in preparare i testi in modo che chi eventualmente vorrà pregare l'Angelus su twitter può farlo attraverso una copia/incolla.

Infatti, in Pasqua si prega la Regina Caeli, per cui ho già messo i testi appositi qui.

Quando si torna a tempo ordinario, i testi twitter-ready dell'Angelus sarebbero i seguenti. Per cominciare il latino, in quanto la lingua universale della Chiesa. Ho messo il testo delle risposte in grassetto. Spero che le palline accanto i testi per chi conduce aumenterà la leggibilità in twitter stesso. I numeri per le Ave Maria servono per fare in modo che twitter non si rifiuta di ripubblicare lo stesso testo più volte.

♪ ♪ ♪ In nomine Patris et Filii † et Spiritus Sancti #twitterangelus
Amen #twitterangelus †

● Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariae #twitterangelus
Et concepit de Spiritu Sancto. #twitterangelus
●¹ Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. #twitterangelus
¹ Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostræ. Amen. #twitterangelus

● Ecce ancilla Domini #twitterangelus
Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. #twitterangelus
●² Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. #twitterangelus
² Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostræ. Amen. #twitterangelus

● Et Verbum caro factum est #inginocchio #twitterangelus
Et habitavit in nobis #twitterangelus
●³ Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. #twitterangelus
³ Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostræ. Amen. #twitterangelus

● Ora pro nobis Sancta Dei Genetrix #twitterangelus
Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi. #twitterangelus

● Oremus: Gratiam tuam quæsumus, Domine, mentibus nostris infunde; ut qui, angelo nuntiante, #twitterangelus
● Christi Filii tui Incarnationem cognovimus, per passionem eius et crucem, ad resurrectionis gloriam perducamur. #twitterangelus
● Per eumdem Christum Dominum nostrum. #twitterangelus
Amen. #twitterangelus #oremus

● (×3) Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. #twitterangelus
● (×3) Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. #twitterangelus
(×3) Amen. #twitterangelus

● #Requiem aeternam, dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua leceat eis. Requiescant in pace.
 #twitterangelus
Amen. #twitterangelus #requiem

Ora come ora, non credo che gli inglesi pregano le Gloria Patri e Requiem Aeternum, ma le riporto caso mai.

Metto un altro hashtag per l'italiano. Così chi cerca "#twitterangelus AND #it" trova solo l'italiano invece del latino o eventualmente altre lingue nello stesso fuso orario!

♪ ♪ ♪ Nel nome del Padre e del Figlio † e dello Spirito Santo. #twitterangelus #it
Amen #twitterangelus #it †

● L'angelo del Signore portò l'annuncio a Maria, #twitterangelus #it
ed ella concepì per opera dello Spirito Santo. #twitterangelus #it
●¹ Ave, o Maria, piena di grazia, il Signore è con te. #twitterangelus #it
●¹ Tu sei benedetta fra le donne e benedetto è il frutto del tuo seno, Gesù. #twitterangelus #it
¹ Santa Maria, Madre di Dio, prega per noi peccatori, adesso e nell'ora della nostra morte. Amen. #twitterangelus #it

● “Ecco sono la serva del Signore.” #twitterangelus #it
“Avvenga in me secondo la tua parola.” #twitterangelus #it
●² Ave, o Maria, piena di grazia, il Signore è con te. #twitterangelus #it
●² Tu sei benedetta fra le donne e benedetto è il frutto del tuo seno, Gesù. #twitterangelus #it
² Santa Maria, Madre di Dio, prega per noi peccatori, adesso e nell'ora della nostra morte. Amen. #twitterangelus #it

● E il verbo si fece carne. #inginocchio #twitterangelus #it
E venne ad abitare in mezzo a noi. #twitterangelus #it
●³ Ave, o Maria, piena di grazia, il Signore è con te. #twitterangelus #it
●³ Tu sei benedetta fra le donne e benedetto è il frutto del tuo seno, Gesù. #twitterangelus #it
³ Santa Maria, Madre di Dio, prega per noi peccatori, adesso e nell'ora della nostra morte. Amen. #twitterangelus #it

● Prega per noi santa madre di Dio. #twitterangelus #it
Perché siamo fatti degni delle promesse di Cristo. #twitterangelus #it
Prega per noi santa madre di Dio. Perché siamo fatti degni delle promesse di Cristo. #twitterangelus #it


● Preghiamo: Infondi nel nostro spirito la tua grazia, o Padre, tu che, all'annuncio dell'Angelo, #twitterangelus #it
● ci hai rivelato l'incarnazione del tuo Figlio, per la sua passione e la sua croce #twitterangelus #it
● guidaci alla gloria della risurrezione. Per Cristo nostro Signore. #twitterangelus #it
Amen. #twitterangelus #it

● (×3) Gloria al Padre e al Figlio e allo Spirito Santo. #twitterangelus #it
(×3) Come era nel principio e ora e sempre, nei secoli dei secoli. Amen. #twitterangelus #it
(×3) Gloria al Padre e al Figlio e allo Spirito Santo. Come era nel principio e ora e sempre, nei secoli dei secoli. Amen. #twitterangelus


● L'eterno riposo, dona loro, o Signore, e splenda ad essi la Luce Perpetua. #twitterangelus #it #requiem
Riposino in pace. Amen. #twitterangelus #it #requiem

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Regina Caeli #twitterangelus



Spiegazione da seguire...

Qui i testi twitter-ready per la Regina Caeli in latino:

♪ ♪ ♪ In nomine Patris et Filii + et Spiritus Sancti #twitterangelus #reginacaeli
Amen #twitterangelus #reginacaeli

● Regina caeli, laetare, Alleluia: #twitterangelus #reginacaeli
Quia quem meruisti portare, Alleluia, #twitterangelus #reginacaeli
● Resurrexit sicut dixit, Alleluia, #twitterangelus #reginacaeli
Ora pro nobis Deum, Alleluia. #twitterangelus #reginacaeli
● Gaude et laetare, Virgo Maria, Alleluia, #twitterangelus #reginacaeli
Quia surrexit Dominus vere, Alleluia. #twitterangelus #reginacaeli

● Oremus: Deus qui per resurrectionem Filii tui, Domini nostri Iesu Christi, #twitterangelus #reginacaeli
● mundum laetificare dignatus es: praesta, quaesumus, #twitterangelus #reginacaeli
● ut per eius Genetricem Virginem Mariam, perpetuae capiamus gaudia vitae. #twitterangelus #reginacaeli
● Per eundem Christum Dominum nostrum. #twitterangelus #reginacaeli
Amen. #twitterangelus #reginacaeli

E qui in italiano:

♪ ♪ ♪ Nel nome del Padre e del Figlio + e dello Spirito Santo. #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli
Amen. #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli

● Regina del cielo, rallegrati, alleluia: #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli
Cristo, che hai portato nel grembo, alleluia, #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli
● è risorto, come aveva promesso, alleluia. #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli
Prega il Signore per noi, alleluia #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli
● Gioisci e rallegrati, Vergine Maria, alleluia. #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli
Poiché il Signore è veramente risorto, alleluia. #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli

● Preghiamo: O Dio, che nella gloriosa risurrezione del tuo Figlio hai ridato la gioia al mondo intero, #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli
● per intercessione di Maria Vergine concedi a noi di godere la gioia della vita senza fine. #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli
● Per Cristo nostro Signore. #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli
Amen. #twitterangelus #it #reginacaeli

Prayer for the Dead and an actual Dilemma

prayer.. (Photo credit: aronki)

Two unexpected things happened today. The first is a prayer request from an unexpected person over at James' blog:

New Friend said... - I know we often disagree but you might, as good Catholics, spare a little thought in your prayers tonight for the dead, those still missing and all affected by the 6.9 earthquake we had here yesterday. It was my first ever and it was pretty scary. We suffered no damage but we are 60 km from the epicentre which is in a remote rural location, where the communication has been cut off, bridges destroyed and landslides block roads. The final death toll will be much higher than currently reported as there are lots of downed buildings yet to be entered.

This is a commenter at James' blog. He lives in the Philippines and writes mostly to opine that Catholics should change their thinking on many issues, in particular because of the problems which result in places like the Philippines. He certainly doesn't seem to believe in Christianity per se, but evidently thinks our prayers are worth asking for at some level. So I'm sure he'd appreciate your prayers as well. Perhaps if I were holier I'd post more prayer requests.

Please pray for them.

---

It also started me thinking about a topic which I've apparently never got round to blogging about: prayer for the dead. I did blog about the intercession of the saints a few times, but the other way around, no.

Before I became a Catholic, I don't remember having an opinion on the subject, but I think that I believed that little could come of prayer for those who had already died; they had lived their lives, and what became of them depended on how they had lived in the time that they had been given.

Looking at it now, this seems to me like a strangely pessimistic attitude for a people who are called to live in the light of the risen Christ, as well as being strangely cold-hearted; even this man who views our religion with suspicion has an intuition of the propriety of prayer for the men and women who are no longer with us. Do we have nothing to offer beyond an exhortation to "seek the Lord while he may be found"?

It seems, in fact, that Jesus would have prayed for the dead himself. Jews pray for the dead now and seem to have prayed for the dead from the time of the Maccabees; it's reasonable to assume that Jesus too prayed for the dead, though the scriptures clearly don't address the matter directly. Interestingly, a relevant passage in the book of 2 Maccabees (12:40-46) actually justifies prayer for the dead on the basis of their future resurrection.

But apart from that, I don't think we have enough information to reject a natural desire to pray for the dead in any case. Intercessory prayer is a great mystery; who understands the relationship between our prayer and the will of God? Not you, that's for sure. And what does it mean to God, if people have "already" died?

Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the whole world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
[...]
A thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.
 - Psalm 89(90)

and

With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. - 2 Pet 3:8

God doesn't run according to our schedule: he's eternal, and the creator of time. Perhaps I'm missing something, but it seems to me that, if you bear this in mind, it really makes a nonsense of the thing. It's easy to see that you won't get anywhere by praying for rain yesterday, but there's a whole spiritual reality which we are only somewhat dimly aware of in the past as well - who's to say what God would make of prayer for the conversion/salvation of someone in the past from our perspective?

And that's without bringing purgatory into it. I see I haven't blogged about purgatory either, but I'll leave it for the minute. You could do worse than reading about it at catholic.com if you're interested.

The Intercession of the Saints
The Intercession of the Saints pt. 2
The Intercession of the Saints pt. 3

---

The second unexpected thing is the arrival of a dilemma. An actual dilemma, as I write in the title, because people tend to use the word quite loosely. I refer especially to moral dilemmas - when you know what the right thing to do is, but you don't want to do it, that's not a dilemma. Just for the record.

So, anyway, my dilemma is a proposal by a work colleague. He works in sales, but writes novels on the side, published novels even. It seems that his last novel at least hasn't been published in English, because he asked me whether I thought I could translate it today. The obvious question is "When?", but it would really be a shame to pass up an opportunity (on a plate) to translate something significantly more interesting than car manuals and potentially have a work in print on my CV.

Decisions, decisions...

Related articles

• Prayer Changes Things (onesinglelady.wordpress.com)
• Prayer Request for Central Philippines earthquake victims - 6 February 2012 (ptl2010.com)
• Philippines earthquake toll rises as dig continues for landslide casualties (guardian.co.uk)
• Prayer and the Sovereignty of God (bycommonconsent.com)
• The Catholic Experience (anthonystephens.wordpress.com)

Woes which have betided and which are currently betiding us

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The more astute of you may have noticed that, apart from a brief thought on 21 December, I hadn't blogged since 12 November. Perhaps you assumed that I'd found a way to make more effective use of my time - as if.

The fact is that I'm here on my own in Sassuolo, whereas my wife and daughter are down in Offagna. For a couple of days, that'd be fine, but we've been apart for almost a week now, and it's much too long.

I'll start from Christmas. Christmas itself was great, it was great to see my family, and it had been three years since I was in England, which is pretty weird. Noemi met two uncles that she didn't know she had and two great grandmothers. She even met Will and Rosie, who came up to see us. We had a whale of a time.

It took a sour turn towards the end though, when Noemi got a temperature and started vomiting, emitting snot in copious quantitites and, at the beginning, had loads of gunk in her eyes. We were just in time to get to a GP on Friday to get prescriptions for the requisite antiobiotics and drops. It was the most ill Noemi had ever been; it was good to be with my family, but on the other hand, it was a little bit awkward trying to manage the thing outside of our own house and our own control. Those of you who are parents will know that it's no picnic giving medicine to babies, still less lots of different medicines at regular (regular like having to get up in the middle of the night) intervals. This all started when we needed to think about packing to go back. We were feeling a bit ill ourselves by the time it came to make the journey back.

Well, the journey was very tiring and stressful for obvious reasons, and the less said about that the better. We still had a fair few days of the whole medicine routine ahead of us and then, when we went to our actual paediatrician after the course had finished because Noemi obviously wasn't 100%, she gave us some more. I think it ended up being about another two weeks in all after coming back, so we were pretty exhausted. The one who always suffers the most is Monica; I don't believe I'm exaggerating when I say that she's told me that she's tired every single day since Noemi was born, something which she definitely doesn't need to tell me any more, but which I do certainly appreciate - being a mum is really taking it out of her. It's a tough job.

The Sassuolo division of the Dobson family on Noemi's actual birthday

One of the high points in this bloody difficult first month of the year was Noemi's birthday. We had intended to go down to Offagna before Christmas, but called it off because Noemi wasn't too well then either. Then we were planning on going down sometime soon after Christmas instead, only she was more dramatically ill. Her grandparents took matters into their own hands and invited themselves down (lovely as it was to see them, I can't help but feel that I should have been consulted, but they are Italian relatives after all...). Anyway, the celebrations were limited, but it was nice.

So what's next after illness? Earthquakes of course. There were a couple of earthquakes in Northern Italy, both near Parma I think. We're a little way from Parma. Apparently the geographical characteristics of our area dampen the effect of earthquakes from up there, so some people didn't even notice the first one; I was at work, and the people who manage the complex where our offices are told us to get out of the building, so we all bundled out in the cold. Bit like a fire drill really. This being Italy, no-one said anything about when to go back in, so people wandered back as seemed best to them.

The second earthquake came a few days later, and this time we definitely felt it. Monica certainly felt it in our flat on the third floor, and was sorely troubled, which is reasonable; I daresay I wouldn't have liked it much myself. I should mention that our building is quite solid though - the main problem with earthquakes in Italy is old/inadequate (illegal) buildings. I remember our landlord talking about the reinforcements when we arrived here back in the day; it means you can't get a good UMTS system.

We decided, when Noemi was taking her afternoon nap on the following Saturday, that the best thing for Monica's piece of mind was a temporary separation - it would play merry hell with Noemi's already quite messed up (from the illness) bedtime routine and be difficult for Monica and for us as a couple, but all things considered better than Monica worrying about when the next earthquake was coming (it never did incidentally, but they were talking about there being possible further earthquakes so it did make sense). We managed to get an awful taxi driver who drove badly to start with, got lost on the way to Modena train station and started driving even worse out of panic. I felt quite nauseous at the end, because I hadn't been feeling quite right for a few days anyway, and it scarcely helped. So we left on Saturday afternoon (4 hour journey) and I came back on the Sunday afternoon, so I didn't have much time to sit down that weekend.

And then came the snow; I had asked for Friday off so I could be back with Monica sooner, but by the time Friday came, there were stories on the news about people being stuck in the fields on trains without all mod cons for 6 hours, so it wasn't really on the cards. I'm stuck here. This was meant to be the weekend that we celebrated Noemi's birthday with Monica's (extended) family, but from what Monica said to me, not even people from Offagna can manage it.

And finally, now Monica's feeling ill and hasn't eaten all day, and in the afternoon Noemi started vomiting - 6 times now apparently. With all the snow, Monica's worried about not being able to get medicines if she needs them.

It's been a bit of a crap start to the year really. My poor wife.

So, yes, I can blog, I can watch Italy vs. France and I can have a cooked breakfast tomorrow, but it's not going to make up for the fact that my wife and daughter are much further away than they should be, and we don't know when we're going to be able to see one another.

Sigh.


Psalm Tones for Night Prayer: Psalm 15(16) - Tone I

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And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus.

He whom God raised up did not see corruption. - Acts 13

Before getting stuck in to this tone, this might be a good moment to summarise how we're getting on with learning the tones for night prayer:

Day	Tone	Tone for 2nd Psalm	Nunc Dimittis
Sunday 1	VIII	VIII	III	At last, all-powerful Master...
Sunday 2	VIII	He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High...	III	At last...
Monday	II		III	At last...
Tuesday	VIII		III	At last...
Wednesday	I	VIII	III	At last...
Thursday	I	Preserve me, God, I take refuge in you.	III	At last...
Friday	V		III	At last...

All the MP3s are here, and this is a one-page PDF summary of all the tones. I didn't post it earlier to avoid scariness, since it all looks more daunting in a lump like this. Here is the LLPB's Psalm Tone Distribution Table as well.

Here's tone I. There are loads of terminations to choose from, but I have a recording with termination g, which seems relatively straightforward:

This time the mediant has two stresses (but with no preparatory syllables), and the termination only one stress (but two preparatory syllables). Remember that the neume for the stressed syllable in the termination means a lower note followed by a higher note on the one syllable. So here is our text for Psalm 15, marked appropriately:

Preserve me, God, I take refuge in yóu.†
I say to the Lord: 'Yóu are my Gód.*
My happiness lies in you alóne.'

I will bless the Lord who gíves me cóunsel,*
who even at night directs my héart.
I keep the Lord ever ín my síght:*
since he is at my right hand, I shall stand fírm.

And so my heart rejoices, my sóul is glád;*
even my body shall rest in sáfety.
For you will not leave my sóul among the déad,*
nor let your beloved know decáy.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again; I think it's a good idea to read the text through first, paying attention to the stresses. I'd do that before listening to my version. The whole point, as far as I'm concerned, is to have tones which you can use to sing any psalm (or canticle) you care to mention, as an aid to meditative, scriptural prayer. And that means thinking about the words first and foremost in any case.

Well, having said that, here's how I reckon it should sound. First I tried singing the flex by starting with the tenor on "you" then dropping down, but it sounded really lame, so instead I just decided to treat the lower note as the stress - much better. Lots of stressed final syllables in this text, so it ends up being rather melismatic, but that's fine with me.

Now, with two psalm tone posts in a row, I'd better take a little break. I think I'll try and memorise the whole psalm, get the whole deal down...

P.S. It's a bloody nightmare getting a table into a blog entry, and the blockquoting leaves something to be desired too. I guess that's why they did a new interface; guess I'll have to switch.

Related articles

• You Will Not Abandon My Soul (veritasmizzou.wordpress.com)
• How 'American Idol' Uses (And Abuses) Melisma (www.npr.org)

Psalm Tones for Night Prayer: Psalm 90(91) - Tone VIII G & G*

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Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'”

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” - Mt 4:5-7

So, back on track with a psalm tone which is recommended for all the Sunday psalms (Sunday I and II can be recited on any day) as well as Tuesday and the second Psalm on Wednesday.

(N.B. According to the 1968 Enchiridion of Indulgences hosted at ourladyswarriors, the second Psalm on Wednesday - De Profundis - has an indulgence attached. If you learnt the tone it might help you to remember and recite the words. Another indulgenced psalm is the Miserere, for which the suggested psalm tone is VII, but it'll be a while before I get to that one.)

That's convenient, but also perhaps a bit boring, so I'm going to do two versions of the tone this time. I see that there are three alternative terminations, but two of them are very similar indeed. I'll do those two now and come back to look at the third termination another time. This time lets look at the tone first:

You can see for yourself that the mediant and the terminations are based on a single stress, and in both of our terminations there are two preparatory syllables. So here's the text:

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most Hígh*
and abides in the shade of the Almíghty
says to the Lord: "My réfuge,*
my stronghold, my God in whom I trúst!"
[..]
Upon you no evil shall fáll,*
no plague approach where you dwéll.
For you has he commanded his ángels,*
to keep you in all your wáys.

They shall bear you upon their hánds*
lest you strike your foot against a stóne.
On the lion and the viper you will tréad*
and trample the young lion and the drágon.

It so happens that there's no flex written for Psalm 90(91), so I put one from another psalm in at the end. From Psalm 142(143) for Tuesday:

I muse on what your hand has wróught†
and to you I stretch out my hánds.*
Like a parched land my soul thirsts for yóu.

MP3 here.

Now, if you look again at the terminations:

...you'll see that only the final neume is different; instead of a one-note neume, it's two notes, returning to the note of the stress. You can hear the difference here. I think it sounds somewhat more monkish. Anyway, it gives you another option.

I think by now I shouldn't need to go into detail about the mechanics of it anymore. If I'm wrong and you'd prefer me to explain something, let me know in the comments. In the meantime, I can finally get on with learning the next one for Wednesday and Thursday!

Plutocracy

I don't have a Word of the Day or Thought for the Day feature. Never mind.

Word of the Day
plutocracy - Government by wealth or by the wealthy. Also, a State governed in this way.

Thought for the Day
I wonder why people aren’t using the word "plutocracy" more, in the current economic/political climate.

11/11/11

So, yesterday was November 11. On Facebook I read noble status updates about Remembrance Day (the timing's a bit different here, so nothing doing on that front.

Meanwhile, in our office, the weakest premise for a cake that I can recall has been adopted. At 11:11, the call goes out:

These Romans Italians are crazy! I shouldn't complain; there was even spumante. I note that they sought to render it a less arbitrary cake with a reference to the feast of St. Martin of Tours. You're fooling no-one!

Those things under CHE are meant to be maroni:

Che (due) maroni! - What (a pair of) chestnuts! - What (a pair of) balls! - What a pain in the arse!

Funny thing language...

Psalm Tones: Psalm 143(144) - Tone VI

Image via Wikipedia

You may already know that there are two different ways of numbering the psalms, one based on the Septuagint and one on the Masoretic text. Eastern Orthodox translations use the numbering of the Septuagint (Greek), Protestants the Masoretic (Hebrew) and Catholics tend to put both numbers.

Why do I mention this? Because this little factoid has confounded my modest plans. I assumed that the Lutheran Liturgical Prayer Brotherhood's Psalm Tone Distribution Table would use the Septuagint numbering system. Why? Mostly absent-mindedness I think, but also because I think all the links I've seen about how Martin Luther believed a heap of things that only Catholics (and the Orthodox I guess) are supposed to believe put the notion that Lutherans are probably pretty trad in my head. Plus, a "Lutheran Liturgical Prayer Brotherhood" who sing using the traditional psalm tones? Sounds pretty tradder-than-thou to me - it'll be like High Anglicanism right? Silly me.

So I learnt the words for Psalm 90 (91) by heart (a Psalm for Sunday Night Prayer, which means you can also sing it any day of the week, you see) but with the "wrong" tone. It's not the end of the world; it seems to work okay, and I'm pleased, with my rubbish memory, to have committed some scripture to memory, but this Prayer Brotherhood probably had a good reason for choosing their tones, so I was planning on following their suggestions.

Anyway, this tone isn't listed for any of the psalms in Compline. So I just picked a psalm I liked that it is listed for:

Blessed be the Lord, my róck†
who trains my árms for báttle,*
who prepares my hands for wár.
[...]
Reach down from heaven and sáve me;†
draw me out from the míghty wáters,*
from the hands of alien fóes
whose mouths are fílled with líes,*
whose hands are raised in pérjury.

To you, O God, will I síng a new sóng;*
I will play on the ten-stringed hárp
to you who give kíngs their víctory,*
who set David your servant frée.

I've just taken some select verses, making sure to leave in a couple of flexes (joined lines) and dactyls (it means "finger" and is a metrical foot - scansion, you couldn't make it up!) to keep it interesting. I cheated and only copied the stresses which are relevant for this tone; in any case, like last time, I suggest you read it through, stressing the stresses, aloud or in your head.

Now here's the notation for the tone:

(This might be a good point to look back at the last instalment, since I'm going to use the same terminology that I did there.)

There are two differences from the last tone that I should mention. First is the termination; in tone III there's one preparatory syllable before the final stress, here, there are two. So in the third line you sing the tenor until you drop down on "hands" and sing "for" on two ascending notes (that's what the two-note neume there means) before you sing the stressed "war". So in addition to reading through the text for the stresses, you'd be well advised to look for the two preparatory syllables in the lines that contain the termination (without a † or * at the end). The second is a reminder that the intonation is usually sung only on the first line; "Reach down from heaven" should all be on the tenor for example.

I deliberately didn't mention something last time, but I'll mention it now. There's a little problem with these tones; they were written for use with Latin, and English (you will have noticed) isn't Latin, so essentially they don't quite work. But the good news is that it doesn't really matter - just fudge it! Apparently there are lots of competing methods for adapting these tones for use with English, but there's no official way and there never will be, so just do what works for you.

My version is here. If I didn't have a 9 month old daughter I would probably record a few takes until it sounded better. Meh.

• Take the first line, for example. Finishes on a stressed syllable. Very common in English but very rare in Latin; that's why whoever wrote the psalm tone assumed that there would be another syllable (perhaps even two) after the stress of the flex (first on the left). What I do is pretend that the lower note is the stressed syllable. Sounds fine to me, whereas the other possibility of singing the stressed syllable on two notes sounds a bit iffy so far as I'm concerned.
• For "lies" and "song" (mediant), I think it sounds better to just sing the note of the stress and forget about returning to the tenor (reciting) note until the next line
• Similarly, there should be a syllable after "war" for the termination at the end of the third line. Here, I nonchalantly sing it on two notes; same with "foes", "harp" and "free".

Related articles

• Lord, You Alone (gratitudeisanattitude.wordpress.com)

Fratelli d'Italia pt. 6

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