Vespers
- Vespers
1) The major hour of the divine office of the Roman Catholic rite sung in the evening. Sundays and important feasts are allotted two vespers services, a first vespers that begins the feast on the preceding evening and second vespers that concludes the feasts on the day itself; ferial days have a single vespers in the evening. Vespers always begins with the versicle Deus in adjutorium. Then come a number of proper psalms with antiphons, five in the medieval Benedictine vespers. On Sunday, Psalms 110–114 (Vulgate numeration) are sung, and the weekdays would continue in order through 147, omitting psalms sung at other hours. Solemn feasts might require particular psalms.
The
psalmody is followed by a brief Bible reading (
Capitulum, "little chapter") and a proper
hymn. (In medieval monastic practice an ornate
chant called a great
responsory preceded the hymn.) After another versicle comes the
Magnificat framed by an antiphon for the day, followed by one of the four
Marian Antiphons. The versicle
Benedicamus Domino concludes the service.
2) (All-Night Vigil)
A setting of the Russian Orthodox night-long service sung in monasteries and, on the eve of holy days, in churches, composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff (Op. 37) in two weeks spanning January and February 1915, and premiered on 10 March 1915 in Moscow. Scored for unaccompanied chorus, it requires about 65 minutes. Nine of the 15 prayer settings used melodies drawn from znamennīy chant, Byzantine chant, and Kievan chant. The music throughout, while clearly of the late 19th century, is syntactically conservative, diatonic, and dominated by step-motion melodies and homorhythmic textures that recall the Russian traditions of sacred music.
Historical dictionary of sacred music.
Joseph P. Swain.
2006.
:
Look at other dictionaries:
Vespers — • Historical article on Evening Prayer, one of the two principal canonical hours Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Vespers Vespers … Catholic encyclopedia
Vespers — Ves pers, n. pl. [OF. vespres, F. v[^e]pres, LL. vesperae, fr. L. vespera evening. See {Vesper}, n.] (R. C. Ch.) (a) One of the little hours of the Breviary. (b) The evening song or service. [1913 Webster] {Sicilian vespers}. See under {Sicilian} … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
vespers — ► NOUN ▪ a service of evening prayer, especially in the Western Christian Church. ORIGIN Latin vesperas evensong … English terms dictionary
Vespers — For other uses, see Vespers (disambiguation). Benedictine monks singing Vespers on Holy Saturday Vespers is the evening prayer service in the Western Catholic, Eastern (Byzantine) Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran liturgies… … Wikipedia
vespers — ves·pers also Ves·pers (vĕsʹpərz) pl.n. (used with a sing. or pl. verb) 1. Ecclesiastical. a. The sixth of the seven canonical hours. b. A worship service held in the late afternoon or evening in many Western Christian churches. c. The time of… … Universalium
Vespers — One of the Seven Canonical Hours (which see). It was from the ancient offices of Vespers and Compline that the present service of Evening Prayer was compiled. This service is sometimes now called Vespers and also Even Song (which see) … American Church Dictionary and Cyclopedia
Vespers — [evensong] One of the day s canonical hours of prayer, vespers is for the early evening. Cf. Horarium … Dictionary of Medieval Terms and Phrases
vespers — [17] Latin vesper meant ‘evening’, and like Greek hésperos it went back ultimately to Indo European *wespero . This was formed from a base *we which denoted ‘down’ and also produced English west, so etymologically vesper signified ‘time when the… … The Hutchinson dictionary of word origins
vespers — [[t]ve̱spə(r)z[/t]] N UNCOUNT In some Christian churches, vespers is a service in the evening … English dictionary
vespers — /ˈvɛspəz / (say vespuhz) plural noun (sometimes upper case) 1. a religious service held in the late afternoon or the evening; Evensong. 2. Ecclesiastical a. the sixth of the seven canonical hours, or the service for it, occurring in the late… …
