A companion to the Gregorian Chant book, the Liber Brevior, the Liber Hebdomadae Sanctae Cantus Gregoriani, is your companion for Holy Week. The Holy Week Gregorian Chant book includes all the chants and melodies for all the offices, ceremonies and Masses of that week.
The most important week for any Catholic is Holy Week. During that time, the Church wants us to reflect upon one of the greatest mysteries of our faith: the passion and death of our Blessed Lord. The Church over the centuries has assembled some of the greatest prayers and ceremonies to commemorate this great act of love of Jesus. And these prayers and ceremonies are all accompanied by beautiful psalms tones and sublime Gregorian chant that normally are only heard during that mournful week.
Since our recently reprinted Liber Brevior was based on the original 1954 edition, this book did not include the restored Pius XII Holy Week ceremonies and offices. So we decided to put together a book just for Holy Week that would include all the chants and melodies for all the offices, ceremonies and Masses of that week. Thus our new Gregorian Chant Holy Week Book was born.
Indeed it can be argued it is difficult to restore the traditional sense of Holy Week on the parish level today. But we think that by introducing this book, it will help to bring back the sense of the sacred to that week, if properly implemented and used by those in charge conducting Holy Week services. The new Gregorian Chant Holy Week Book was made by taking out those parts from the 1962 Liber Usualis that pertain to the entire week, beginning with the restored Palm Sunday ceremonies up to and including the Easter Vigil.
Thus, parishes with those interested in doing the offices of the Sacred Triduum, for example, can find this book most valuable in singing those offices on the last 3 days of Holy Week. And all the other sung ceremonies can be found in this book as well. For choirs on the parish level, we believe this book of 251 pages is smaller, more useful and more affordable for Holy Week, than the larger and bulkier Liber Usualis. As usual, we have had this book sewn and bound with a hardcover durable binding for a long life. All the music is in Gregorian notation with the rubrics in English.
