Metrics in Music
by
Fred Schaeffer, SFO
Most of us Franciscans pray the Liturgy of the Hours every day. For the First and Second Order, it is mandatory, as it is for all priests and brothers, diocesan or religious. People who are members of Third Orders Secular, may pray different forms of the Liturgy of the Hours. There are Orders, such as the Benedictines, for example, who use Gregorian Chant as a basis for all their Liturgies. In all of these forms, there are hymns, and hymn tunes are very standardized because their tune or melody is adapted around the metrics of those hymns.
The purpose of this web page is then to show members of SFO, and similar Orders, that they can remember hymn tunes, because there is no need to remember them all. The reason is simple... once you know the standard hymn tunes based on the metric system, these can be applied to all hymns which have the same metric rating.
Metric rating is done by
line of each stanza, simply by counting the syllables. For example, take
the first line of the hymn "Pange Lingua" which reads: "Pange
Lingua Gloriosi" - there are 8 syllables in this line, let us separate
them:
"Pan-ge-Lin-gua-Glo-ri-o-si" that's 8 syllables.
Now, in English, the hymn "I shall praise the Savior's glory": is traditionally sung, using the Pange Lingua tune. The first line "I shall praise the Sa-vior's glo-ry" - also have 8 sylables. But that's only one line. The Meter of both hymns is noted as: 87.87.87 - which means that there are six lines and that the first, third and fifth lines have 8 syllables and the second, fourth and sixth lines have 7 syllables.
Let's take another example, something easier, perhaps. "Sunday Week II Evening Prayer I" uses the hymn "At the Name of Jesus" composed by R. Vaughan Williams using the "King Weston" melody. The Meter of this hymn is 65.65.D - which means each stanza has 8 lines ("D" mean double). Let's examine the first two lines:
At the name of Je-sus
= 6 syllables
Ev'-ry knee shall bow = 5 syllables.
One more example. The hymn for Thursday Week II Morning Prayer, is "O God of Light, the dawning day." When you look underneath the hymn you will find no numbers but the letters L.M. which stands for Long Meter. There are several of those designations, e.g. CM or Common Meter, LM Long Meter, etc.
In simple terms, meter refers to the rhythmic and syllabic structure of a piece of poetry, which is essentially what a hymn is. Meter markings on hymn tunes indicate the number of syllables in each line of the hymn. For instance:
A hymn with the meter 76 76 has seven syllables in the first line, six in the second, seven in the third, and six in the fourth. A hymn with the meter of 10 10 10 10 has four lines, each with ten syllables. The letter D at the end of a meter notation means "double." For instance, a hymn with the meter 87 87 D has eight syllables in the first line, seven in the second, eight in the third, seven in the fourth, then the pattern repeats itself for the fifth through eighth lines.
Some meters are used so frequently they have acquired names of their own:
86 86 is known as Common Meter (abbreviated CM)
66 86 is known as Short Meter (abbreviated SM)
88 88 is known as Long Meter (abbreviated LM)
Again, when the letter D follows any of these, the pattern is repeated.
When looking at the metrical index of a hymnal, one often finds some hymns listed with the meter "Irregular." This means a couple of different things. For one, it can mean there is no consistent pattern of number of syllables per line. For another, it can mean the number of syllables per line is not consistent between stanzas. This can happen especially when slurs are used in some stanzas and not in others in the same part of the music.
In addition, most hymnals do not count out the number of syllables in refrains. Thus, if a hymn is listed as "CMD with Refrain," it means the stanzas are Common Meter Double, and the refrain is in addition. The only way to know for sure is to count the syllables in the refrain.
If you are using Christian Prayer, there will either be a listing of hymns without notes, or, hymns with notes, depending on the edition. In either case, it will give you the Meter. For example, Hymn #35, "The Setting Sun" shows "Melody: Angelus L.M." - What's important to us is "LM" or Long Meter. So when you know the tune of this hymn, one could apply the same tune to all Long Meter Hymns. Instead of knowing just one hymn, you now know dozens!
Abbreviations: w/ with; A Alleluias; An Antiphon; R Refrain
| No. 75 171 14 103 131 52 11 121 112 27 173 81 116 39
57 170 5 31 70 162 114 118 98 100 55 51 176 130 50
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First Line
A Child is born in Bethlehem Darkness has faded Faith of our fathers Jesus Christ is ris'n today Keep in mind Let all mortal flesh keep silence Praise him as he mounts the Send forth your Spirit Ye Sons and Daughters |
Meter
88 w/A & R
Irregular
LM
LM Irregular |
Similar Hymns
(i.e. same Meter) by Number It is immediately obvious that Long Meter (LM) occurs most frequently in the table. While there are various forms of LM, any one of those will fit with any LM hymn. Everyone
knows the tune of "Faith of Our Fathers" - so now you know a tune that
fits all LM hymns. At Divine Mercy Fraternity, we often use the "Old 100th" tune, which is interchangeable with LM. It is a 16th Century tune (see "Lord Jesus Christ, Abide with Us" it'll say "Old 100th L.M." There are a number of choices for CM, but the most useful one is for the hymn "O God, our help in ages past," which many people know. All the CM hymns can be used with that tune. 76.76.D is another common tune. "Now fades all earthly splendor" will help you with this meter type. So you, see, my friends, you already know dozens of hymns by just knowing a couple of key hymns! And, the Bible says that Singing is Praying Twice, so those for whom you are offering your prayer will benefit doubly. In fact, when I am alone, I sing the whole "Office." It just comes natural especially when I pray to the Holy Spirit beforehand to make my prayer more pleasing to God! The 4-volume "Liturgy of the Hours" books have more and different hymns than those listed in this table, which occur in the 1-vol. "Christian Prayer." Peace and Good to All! The Catechism of the Catholic Church gives us the following advice: 2680 - Prayer is primarily addressed to the Father; it can also be directed toward Jesus, particularly by the invocation of his holy name: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners." 2681 - "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord', except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor 12:3). The Church invites us to invoke the Holy Spirit as the interior Teacher of Christian prayer. 2682 - Because of Mary's singular cooperation with the action of the Holy Spirit, the Church loves to pray in communion with the Virgin Mary, to magnify with her the great things the Lord has done for her, and to entrust supplications and praises to her. Always pray to the Holy Spirit to bless the prayer you're about to pray. If you are not in a state of Grace, it is unwise to aver your love for the Father, for in fact, when we sin we do not love God. Pray for forgiveness without reservation, experience the Sacrament of Reconciliation more often, and strive to live a holy life. From: MUSICAM SACRAM
Congregation for Divine Worship INSTRUCTION ON MUSIC IN THE LITURGY Sacred Congregation of Rites 5 March, 1967 II. The Singing Of The Divine Office 37. The sung celebration of the Divine Office is the form which best accords with the nature of this prayer. It expresses its solemnity in a fuller way and expresses a deeper union of hearts in performing the praises of God. That is why, in accordance with the wish of the Constitution on the Liturgy,[23] this sung form is strongly recommended to those who celebrate the Office in choir or in common. For it is desirable that at least some part of the Divine Office, especially the principal Hours, namely Lauds and Vespers, should be performed in sung form by these people, at least on Sundays and feast days. Other clerics also, who live in common for the purpose of studies, or who meet for retreats or other purposes, will sanctify their meetings in a very fitting way if they celebrate some parts of the Divine Office in sung form. 38. When the Divine Office is to be celebrated in sung form, a principle of "progressive" solemnity can be used, inasmuch as those parts which lend themselves more directly to a sung form, e.g. dialogues, hymns, verses and canticles, may be sung, and the rest recited. This does not change the rules at present in force for those obliged to choir, nor does it change particular indults. 39. One will invite the faithful, ensuring that they receive the requisite instruction, to celebrate in common on Sundays and feast days certain parts of the Divine Office, especially Vesper,, or, according to the customs of the particular area and assembly, other Hours. In general, the faithful, particularly the more educated, should be led by suitable teaching, to understand the psalms in a Christian sense and use them in their own prayers, so that they may gradually acquire a stronger taste for the use of the public prayer of the Church. 40. The members of Institutes professing the evangelical virtues should be given special instruction of this type, so that they may draw from it more abundant riches for the development of their spiritual life. It is desirable also that they should participate more fully in the public prayer of the Church by performing the principal Hours of the Office in sung form, as far as possible. 41. In accordance with the norm of the Constitution on the Liturgy and the centuries-old tradition of the Latin rite, the Latin language is to be retained for clerics celebrating the Divine Office in choir.[24] Since however the same Liturgy Constitution[25] concedes the use of the vernacular in the Divine Office both by the faithful and by nuns and other members of Institutes professing the evangelical virtues, who are not clerics, due care should be taken that melodies are prepared which may be used in the singing of the Divine Office in the vernacular.
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