The Latin Officium Parvum is the base of the project. For now, I am working from Veronica Brandt’s edition and resources, not to replace their chant practice but to derive a transparent measured system from it. The first phase begins with the canticles, whose invariant place within the Office makes them the clearest ground on which to establish the method.
The music uses proportional rhythm and measured notation. Verbal accents and cadences remain governed by the text, but duration is made explicit enough to be learned, repeated and carried by an instrument. The fretted dulcimer provides a stable drone and spare melodic support. The voice remains primary; the instrument fixes the modal field and pulse without turning the Office into a song accompaniment.
From the Latin base, corresponding English settings will be derived using Coverdale and related liturgical translations. These will not be independent paraphrases. Each version will follow the structure, mode and proportional relations established in the Latin, while adjusting cadences to the natural stresses of English.
Solfège names the modal relationships, and tablature places them on the fretboard. The aim is a household practice in which Latin and English, text and breath, measured notation and instrument can be learned as one devotional form.
A working toy
The first public piece of the project is a working toy of sorts: a browser-based ear and fretboard toy for sounding D Dorian against D and A drones. It belongs before the Office itself, as a place to hear how the mode settles under the hand and in the ear.
In preparation
Latin canticle settings; corresponding Coverdale and related English versions; measured notation; proportional rhythmic guidance; movable-do exercises; and tablature for stable fretted-dulcimer accompaniment. Morning and Evening offices will follow.