Day 3 - In Dulci Jubilo

Today's carol is In Dulci Jubilo. Another one that I first sang as a very young child. This arrangement is very heavily based on the John Rutter three part version. The words are 12th century and the tune probably 15th or 16th. The third verse is sometimes attributed as a late addition by Martin Luther.
This is the first thing that I have posted with proper Christian theology of Christ in it - here is Jesus the Redeemer explicitly for the first time. But also - nova cantica, that new song as referenced by the Song of Solomon, and in Exodus. One of the things I love about the Christian bible as literature is the way that it is intertextual - it says what it says by reference and inference. And to be redeemed is to compose and be composed. To make music, or poetry - but oral poetry, to be heard. Macronic text emphasises this idea - here is religion that creates its understanding in the gaps between; where translation fails - the unspoken and the sung.

Hope you enjoy!




In Dulci Jubilo by Jessie Holder is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

In dulci jubilo
Let us our homage shew:
Our heart's joy reclineth
In praesepio;
And like a bright star shineth
Matris in gremio,
Alpha es et O!

Alpha es et O!

O Jesu parvule,
I yearn for thee alway
Hear me, I beseech Thee,
O puer optime;
My prayer let it reach Thee
O princeps gloriae.
Trahe me post te!

Trahe me post te!

O patris caritas!
O Nati lenitas!
Deeply were we stained.
Per nostra crimina:
But Thou for us hast gained
Coelorum gaudia,

O that we were there!

O that we were there!

Ubi sunt gaudia,
If that they be not there?
There are Angels singing
Nova cantica;
And there the bells are ringing
In Regis curia.
O that we were there!

Oh that we were there!