The Bugnini-Liturgy and the Reform of the Reform - MusicaSacra

1. Hymns of the Hours
In connection with the hymns of the Hours, the Constitution on the
sacred liturgy provided for two changes: to enlarge the repertory, and to
"restore the old forms," that is, to eliminate the unfortunate outcome of the
17 th -century aggiornamento (cf. § 93).
The Bugnini breviary has fulfilled, or perhaps "over-fulfilled," the first
task. It is in fact not so certain that by multiplying the number of hymns,
a definite profit has been realized in every respect. Overwhelming as the
wealth of the surviving hymns of the Roman liturgy may be, in reality each
local church only made use of some 80 to 100 items; their adequate repetition,
and the deliberate balance between variety and constancy resulted in
a kind of familiarity: it followed from the repetitions of melodies and texts
that anyone saying the Office could be familiar with each hymn separately
and could even know them by heart in many instances. This personal familiarity
with the hymns is endangered by the exaggerated number of hymns
(amounting to some 300 in the new hymnal, many of them recent compositions).
As much as I find the prospective enlargement of the repertory justified
(though not to the same extent in every part of the breviary) I can
hardly escape the impression that in this case a subcommittee used the opportunities
for creativity with zealous and exaggerated ambition. 3
For the most part, the reconstruction of the texts has been carried out
successfully. The worst failure for which one might blame the compilers
of the new hymnal is that in other instances they themselves found reasons
for "emendations" so that we cannot claim to have authentic texts at our
disposal this time, either. In my opinion, these modifications are for the
most part unjustified. To mention only two examples: the last two verses
of St. Ambrose's famous hymn for Easter (Hie est dies verus Dei) have been
omitted, thus eliminating the textual unit which forms the climax of the
whole poem and which opens up eschatological perspectives at the end of
3 Would it not be a more satisfactory solution for the Church to submit a medium-sized
"common hymnal" (consisting, let us say, of 60 to 80 hymns) together with a rich selection
from the "treasury of hymns" out of which the individual local churches could
make up their own hymnals by selecting some 60 to 80 additional pieces, each according
to its own capabilities, and also including some hymns from their own local liturgical tradition?
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