T IS SOMEWHAT remarkable how difficult it is to find accompaniments for Vespers. Without question, the best source is the Nova Organi Harmonia—using, of course, the search function, which is COMMAND+F on a Mac, or CONTROL+F on a Windows computer. People like Giulio Bas, Joseph Hanisch, John Lambert and Peter Wagner also harmonized parts of the Divine Office, which you can conveniently download at the Lalande Library—but those collections are problematic in various ways. In Lent, the organ is permitted “to accompany the voices.” We have posted a number of articles with Vespers resources.
Here’s an accompaniment I created:
* PDF Download • “Audi Benígne Cónditor”
—Harmonization by Jeff Ostrowski (15 March 2020).
Do you see how every verse is written out? This imitates the accompaniments for the Brébeuf hymnal:
Below is “Audi Benigne Conditor” as it appeared approximately 1425AD:
By the way, here’s an organ accompaniment to AUDI BENIGNE CONDITOR by Marcel Dupré (d. 1971), whom some consider the greatest concert organist of all time:
Our parish has five Sunday Masses, plus Vespers. I am so glad the Brébeuf hymnal provides numerous different tunes for each hymn, because I would go crazy playing the same tune six times in one day!
