Now, My Tongue, the Mystery Telling

Use: Eucharistic
Required Resources: SATB choir, organ
Language: English

Saint Thomas wrote his great Eucharistic hymn, Pange lingua gloriosi, for the newly-created feast of Corpus Christi — and that was back in the 13th century during the pontificate of Urban IV. Many translators have offered English versions of the poem, perhaps greatest among these are the churchmen, John Mason Neale and Edward Caswell. Their translations are use din this setting of the hymn tune, Picardy, which otherwise is sung with the common text, "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence."

The verses are set simply:

1. Unison mixed voices, p, light organ without pedal
2. SATB, mp, a cappella
3. Men's voices, mp, organ without pedal
4. Unison mixed voices, mf, organ with pedal

If the congregation is familiar with this hymn tune, the CNP setting by Alan Smith will be a welcome addition to the choral repertoire, using a known tune with a different text. If the congregation doesn't know this beautiful French tune, this motet is a great way for the choir to introduce the melody, perhaps on the Sunday before they sing the hymn the first time.

Alan Smith was born in London in 1962 and spent his childhood in Croydon (Surrey, London). His first appointment was as Organist and Choirmaster of a local church at the age of 16. Thrown in at the deep end, he managed somehow to swim rather than sink and eventually became Organ Scholar at Kings' College, London, where he studied from 1981 to 1984. Since 1998, Alan has been Director of Music at Saint Andrew's Church (Anglican) in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, where he lives with his wife and three children.