I’ve already covered:
234 Come, Lord Jesus, Come (Mangan)
235 Sing Out Earth and Skies (Haugen)
This is a newish non rhyming translation from Mount Saint Bernard Abbey of a Latin text, which is somewhere from seventh to tenth century depending on your source.
Wikipedia has several translations but this one is copyright so I won’t reproduce it here.
It is set to CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM, which I am told is Sarum plainsong Mode IV.
This is the sheet music from Hymnary with another translation.
My backing comes with the caveat that BIAB CAN’T DO CHANT. I made up the chords since CWBII doesn’t provide them.
Here is the Latin text.
Conditor alme siderum
aetérna lux credéntium
Christe redémptor ómnium
exáudi preces[voces] súpplicum
Qui cóndolens intéritu
mortis perire saeculum
salvásti mundum languidum
donans reis remedium.
Vergénte mundi véspere
uti sponsus de thálamo
egréssus honestissima
Virginis matris cláusula.
Cuius forti ponténtiae
genu curvántur ómnia
caeléstia, terréstia
nutu faténtur súbdita.
Te, Sancte fide quáesumus,
venture judex sáeculi,
consérva nos in témpore
hostis a telo perfidi.
Sit, Christe rex piissime
tibi Patríque glória
cum Spíritu Paráclito
in sempitérna sáecula.
Amen.
This hymn highlights another CWB2 problem – far too many hymns can not be licensed from OneLicense, and this is one of them. To make matters worse, this paraphrase lacks poetic merit and feels clumsy to sing. Far better, in my opinion, is the more commonly used modern version that is on OneLicense copyrighted to the Church Pension Fund – the words and music are on the OneLicense website. This is a wonderful hymn for the procession of gifts in the early part of Advent.
A general suggestion with the chords: he melody edition of Together in Song, which is still in print, contains simple chords for just about all its hymn tunes, but they are not in the harmony edition. Having said that CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM isn’t in the hymnal!
I missed a more obvious suggestion for the chords that would suit you: your OCP guitar accompaniment book has them (though a different arrangement) under the more common title “Creator of the Stars of Night”. There are also numerous recordings on YouTube.
Just as an aside, we use the American Gather hymnal (3rd ed.) and typically that won’t have chords on hymn tunes unless someone like Marty Haugen or John Bell has reharmonized, and 95 % of the scans of the (admittedly mostly non-Catholic hymnals) don’t include them either. I’m not an instrumentalist, but the two I sing with that use chords often make changes to what’s printed anyway. Since the chords on old arrangements are often compromises that don’t perfectly match the choral/organ harmonies, perhaps CWB could have followed TIS and put the chords for the hymn tunes in the pew editions?
I’ve probably got a bit carried away with my response to this post, but I just love this hymn! I use CWB2 for additional material to Gather, and am quite happy that we have an Australian book for congregations that prefer more traditional style music, but it is very frustrating, especially with licensing.
Thanks Chris
I value your comments because the traditional material is not something I’m used to and I want to understand and appreciate it, even if I don’t think it is within the culture of the assemblies for whom I play.
The CWBII process was so long that copyright moved to One Licence well after they chose the material.
I checked TIS for this one but forgot the OCP guitar book. I get annoyed when OCP adds chords and then think they can copyright these old tunes but at least they supply them. This time I got some hints from the sample at http://www.LutheranMusic.com and guessed the rest. Band in a Box isn’t really setup for this sort of music but at least it gives me a look at the tune.
I know that guitar chords simplify the harmonies but if the guitar is all that is available that won’t get in the way.
While I am trying to reign in my disappointment with CWBII, it strikes me as odd that I have seen nothing but praise from official channels and only puzzled concern from parish musicians.
Please get carried away. Apart from the APMN site, I can’t think of anywhere else we can vent about these things while getting on with the business of volunteering to play at Mass.
cheers
Geoff