(no subject)

[tree_and_leaf]

I think this may be the most perfect hymn ever, though good videos of it on youtube are curiously hard to find (you will note that the translation I give below is different; the congregation is singing the JM Neale one, but think I like the form I quote below better. Also, it’s from “Songs of Praise”, so ignore the rather cheesy presenter at the start…)

Prudentius: Cordes natus est parentes:

Of the Father's heart begotten,
Ere the world from chaos rose,
He is Alpha, from that Fountain
All that is and has been flows;
He is Omega, of all things,
Yet to come the distant Close,
Evermore and evermore for ever.

By His word was all created
He commanded and 'twas done;
Earth and sky and boundless ocean,
Universe of three in one,
All that sees the moon's soft radiance,
All that breathes beneath the sun,
Evermore and evermore.

He assumed this mortal body,
Frail and feeble, doomed to die,
That the race from dust created,
Might not perish utterly,
Which the dreadful Law had sentenced
In the depths of hell to lie,
Evermore and evermore.

O how blest that wondrous birthday,
When the Maid the curse retrieved,
Brought to birth mankind's salvation
By the Holy Ghost conceived,
And the Babe, the world's Redeemer
In her loving arms received,
Evermore and evermore.

This is he, whom seer and sibyl
Sang in ages long gone by;
This is he of old revealed
In the page of prophecy;
Lo! he comes the promised Saviour;
Let the world his praises cry!
Evermore and evermore.

Sing, ye heights of heaven, his praises;
Angels and Archangels, sing!
Wheresoe’er ye be, ye faithful,
Let your joyous anthems ring,
Every tongue his name confessing,
Countless voices answering,
Evermore and evermore.

Let the storm and summer sunshine,
Gliding stream and sounding shore,
Sea and forest, frost and zephyr,
Day and night their Lord alone;
Let creation join to laud thee
Through the ages evermore,
Evermore and evermore.

Translation by Roby Furley Davis, for the English Hymnal (1906).

(It’s very, very neoplatonic, but it’s a magical hymn for me; I remember singing it at an evening service one Advent; the power went off, but there was enough light from the candles, and we finished the hymn unaccompanied in the flickering half-light.) Unfortunately people tend to cut out verse two and the last verse, which annoys me no end, because it’s a very important part of the theology of the hymn: that all creation is loved and redeemed by Christ, not just H. Sapiens.

Comments

[wychwood]

I'd never heard that before this week, but it's coincidentally one of the pieces we're doing for our Christmas concerts!

(and our conductor told us a story of how he heard it at an Advent service as a small boy in Kingston-on-Thames; it was apparently a formative experience, one of the reasons he ended up as a professional musician.)

[tree_and_leaf]

I hope the concert goes well - what else are you singing? Your conductor evidently has good taste, anyhow...

[wychwood]

Heh :) And thanks.

I forget all the details, but we're doing the regular audience participation carols (Hark the Herald, O Come All Ye Faithful, Good King Wenceslas, a few more like that), I Saw Three Ships, Joubert's "Torches", Rise Up Shepherd and Follow, um... something women-only I don't know because we haven't sung it yet, and I'm sure there's a couple of other pieces I'm forgetting. Plus whatever the assorted youth choruses sing, which I have no idea about.

[wychwood]

ETA: ok, this was bugging me and I had to go and check my music *g*.

audience carols - unto us is born a son, God rest you merry gentlemen, hark the herald angels sing, good King Wenceslas and O come all ye faithful

adult choir carols - I Saw Three Ships, processional on "Corde Natus ex Parentis", Torches, Let All the World in Every Corner Sing, This is the Day, This the Blessed Morn, Rise Up, Shepherd and Follow, the Bell Carol, and the inevitable encore of We Wish You A Merry Christmas.

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I'd never come across that translation before, and I didn't know some of those verses, either.

[tree_and_leaf]

It's the old high church one - the Baker one seems to be much more widely known (and is less neo-Platonic). It's a pity hymns tend to get so viciously abridged, though at least we've not sunk to the depths of German churches; but I'd rather sing one hymn fewer and all the verses of the ones that are sung.

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

What are they doing in German churches? The one here always sings all the verses listed in the hymnal if they are going to sing a hymn. Occcasionally they might sing half before and half after a church council meeting if it is a long one.

[tree_and_leaf]

All the churches I was in in Baden last year (EKD and Catholic) would only sing two or three verses of any hymn. It was infuriating, especially as they didn't announce the hymn, so sometimes most of it was over by the time you'd found the place. The nadir was the day the minister hadn't noticed that she'd made the hymn end half-way through a sentence....

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

This is, indeed, an excellent hymn :-)

[lizw.livejournal.com]

It's usually three and seven that get cut out in the churches I've been to.