An Advent Quartet (cont.)

3. Rejoice, Rejoice, Believers

   Text:  Ermuntert euch, ihr Frommen

   Author/Source:  Laurentius Laurenti (1660-1722)

   Translator:  Sarah B. Findlater (1823-1907)

   Tune name:  Llangloffan [76.76.D]

   Composer/Source:  Llwybrau Moliant, Wrexham, Wales, 1872

   With its theme of the Lord's second coming, this hymn was originally written for the last Sunday in the Church year, but it is quite appropriate for Advent also. The author, Laurentius Laurenti, was cantor (music director) in the Lutheran cathedral at Bremen. He wrote the text in 1700 for his collection Evangelica melodica. A splendid musician and accomplished hymn-writer of the Petistic School in Germany, Laurenti had 34 hymns included in the influential Freylinghausen Collections.

   The English translation by Sarah Findlater first appeared in her Hymns from the Land of Luther in 1854.

   Rejoice, rejoice, believers is sung to several tunes:

   Ellacombe – a German Catholic tune in A Major

   Haf Trones Lampa Fardig – a Swedish tune in A-flat Major

   Llangloffan – a Welsh tune in g minor

   The hymn's first word, "Rejoice," makes it a perfect choice for Gaudete Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent.

   
   

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4. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

   Text:  Veni, veni, Emmanuel

   Author/Source:  Latin, 9th century

   Translator:  John Mason Neale (1818-1866)

   Tune name:  Veni Emmanuel [LM with refrain]

   Composer/Source:  chant melodies adapted by Thomas Helmore (1811-1890)

   Perhaps the ultimate Advent hymn, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel is one of the oldest also, barring the true Gregorian chant hymns. The stanzas as we now know them are paraphrases of the Magnificat antiphons for Vespers on the seven days prior to Christmas Eve (December 17-23). The Latin texts begin:

   1. O Sapientia ... [O Wisdom ...]
   2. O Adonai ... [O Lord ...]
   3. O Radix Jesse ... [O Root of Jesse ...]
   4. O Clavis David ... [O Key of David ...]
   5. O Oriens ... [O Morning Star ...]
   6. O Rex gentium ... [O King of the Nations ...]
   7. O Emmanuel ... [O God-with-Us ...]

   An interesting linguistic feature of these titles and their order was apparently quite appealing to the Medieval mind. The first letter of each title, reading backwards from E to S, spells the Latin phrase, Ero cras, meaning, "Tomorrow I am."

   In early British usage, these O Antiphons, as they were called, began on December 16 rather than 17, necessitating the addition of another ("O Virgo virginum") on December 23. In Medieval times it was customary for each of the monastic leaders to "keep his O" in turn, by singing his assigned O Antiphon and then providing a pittance or feast for his fellow monks. At the monastery of Fleury, roles were assigned:

   Abbot – O Sapientia

   Prior – O Adonai

   Gardener – O radix Jesse

   Cellarer – O clavis David

   Treasurer – O Oriens

   Provost – O Rex gentium

   Librarian – O Emmanuel

   Sacristan – O Virgo viginum

   Sometime during the 12th or 13th centuries, the texts of these seven original antiphons were adapted into metrical stanzas, although these cannot be definitively traced earlier than their appearance in hymnal appendix in 1710. John Mason Neale, renowned classical English hymn-writer, chose only five stanzas, re-ordered them, and published them in Latin in 1851 in his Hymni ecclesiæ e brevariis. He subsequently translated them into English for his Mediæval Hymns and Sequences, also published in 1851. Henry Sloan Coffin added translations of O Sapientia and O Rex gentium in 1916, completing the seven stanzas as we know them today.

   Although originally cited as a "melody from a French Missal in the National Library, Lisbon," the tune called Veni Emmanuel is now thought to have been arranged by Thomas Helmore from various Kyrie chant melodies. The melody has come down both as an unmetered plainsong, accompanied simply, and as a metered "chorale," with vigorous chordal accompaniment.

   Both the author (translator), Neale, and the composer (arranger), Helmore, were members of the Oxford Movement, which hoped to restore to the Anglican Church some of the office hymns and plainsong melodies that had been in use prior to the Reformation.

   The imminence of the coming of the messiah (Emmanuel) and the realization that one of the stanza dates (December 17-23) will likely fall on this Sunday make the choice of this hymn a must for the Fourth Sunday of Advent.