Versicle and Response for Responsorial Liturgical works
It would be really nice to have Versicle ℣ (U+2123) and Response (Refrain) ℟ (U+211F) available as a selectable symbol.
They are used in responsorial Psalms and prayers.
I'm currently tricking these symbols into MuseScore using Rehersal Marks and the symbols in a Unicode font.
EVEN COOLER...
... would be to tie them into the Repeats Pallete and code them so the MIDI will repeat to the previous response every time it passes a versicle and then sees another versicle, and then continue to the new versicle after the response.
For example (Using R for Response and V for Versicle, I don't know if your forum likes oddball Unicode characters):
If I scored:
R Pray for us.
V Saint Mary Magdalene,
V Saint Stephen,
V Saint Ignatius of Antioch,
V Saint Lawrence, (V - Hidden)
R All you holy men and women pray for us.
R Lord deliver us we pray.
V Lord be merciful
V From all evil,
V From every sin,
V From everlasting death, (V - Hidden)
R Lord we ask you, hear our prayer
R Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us. (End of score)
the MIDI would play:
Pray for us.
Saint Mary Magdalene,
Pray for us.
Saint Stephen,
Pray for us.
Saint Ignatius of Antioch,
Pray for us.
Saint Lawrence,
Pray for us.
All you holy men and women pray for us.
Lord deliver us we pray.
Lord be merciful
Lord deliver us we pray.
From all evil,
Lord deliver us we pray.
From every sin,
Lord deliver us we pray.
From everlasting death,
Lord deliver us we pray.
Lord we ask you, hear our prayer
Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us.
-Lyrics borrowed from Litany of the Saints by John Becker. (OCP)
He didn't use versicles but it made a handy short example.
Plus the song is really beautiful.
Something like this would be MOST useful when scoring responsorial Psalms.
Comments
I know nothing about Psalms and prayers but do you know you can edit the text of the element in repeat palette instead of using staff text?
Then it should work to have something like (with 1. 2. etc being voltas)
||: R1 1.V1:|| 2.V2:|| 3.V3:|| 4.V4 || etc...
In reply to I know nothing about Psalms by [DELETED] 5
I apologize I did not see this earlier.
Yes, of course anyone of course could use repeat pallets, but it is not what people are used to seeing in a Missal. There's a lot of non-musicians in a group of people attending a church.
The Response symbol is used in almost all modern Roman Catholic hymnals.
In all honesty, the versical symbol is a little antiquated, but most people who attend a Roman Catholic church know what it means.
I can scan in some examples if required. Usually the Response symbol is posted just before the text response, or refrain, and then at the end of each versicle to let the congregation know to return to the response.
I will BET you, if you write a message to ChurchOrganist
http://musescore.com/user/9641
he would be able to give you a short dissertation on the use of Versicles and Response, and how they should look in the program, and a score. He's been dong this stuff for a lot longer than I have, and he knows his stuff.
...But you have a lot of attention to old Gregorian Chant stuff already in MuseScore, the ability to use Versicles and Response as a standard symbol in the repeat pallete would be a great addition, even if it doesn't do anything with MIDI playback.
Came up again in https://musescore.org/en/node/268173