O Radiant Light, O Sun Divine
  • donr
    Posts: 971
    I am looking for this in Hymn tune form not Polyphony. Does anyone have a setting of it?
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    Michael Joncas actually has a lovely tune he wrote for it - it's in the third edition of the Canadian hymnal, but is copyrighted.
    Thanked by 1donr
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Which L.M. (88.88) tune?

    CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM
    O RADIANT LIGHT (in Gather Comprehensive, © 1979, by GIA Publications, Inc.)
    JESU DULCIS MEMORIA
    BOOTS ( © 2011, by GIA Publications, Inc.)

    BOOTS is the tune matthewj references, I believe. [Note: I mistyped, because it is O RADIANT LIGHT that is by Joncas]
    Thanked by 1donr
  • donr
    Posts: 971
    OK, I will do it to Jesu Dulcis Memoria.
    Does anyone have harmonization for this lovely melody. SATB that would also be willing to type set for me. I will be using this for our Altar Lighting and Church Lighting ceremony for our Dedication Mass.
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    Hymnary mentions a tune named BOOTS held by GIA that was written by Norah Duncan.
    Thanked by 1donr
  • There is a beautiful SATB hymn-tune setting of this at no. 176 in The Hymnal 1940. The tune is Nunc Dimittis, by Louis Bourgeois. The text is 3rd century Greek, Phos hilaron (literally, 'O hilarious light!'), and is translated as 'O gladsome light...' This is, in fact, one of the very earliest of Christian hymns that have come down to us.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,509
    Intriguingly, the Phos hilaron has never found a permanent place in the Liturgy of the Catholic west.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,509
    Btw, the Robert Bridges translation, as usual, is looser but much more poetic than the more customary LM O Radiant Light translation.

    Notice that the Trinitarian invocation is in the second rather than the final verse.

    O gladsome Light, O grace
    of God the Father's face,
    the eternal splendor wearing;
    celestial, holy, blest,
    our Savior Jesus Christ,
    joyful in thine appearing.

    Now, ere day falleth quite,
    we see the evening light,
    our wonted hymn outpouring;
    Father of might unknown,
    thee, his incarnate Son,
    and Holy Spirit adoring.

    To thee of right belongs
    all praise of holy songs,
    O Son of God, Life-giver;
    thee, therefore, O Most High,
    the world doth glorify,
    and shall exalt for ever.

  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Oops, my bad ... the tune by Joncas is O RADIANT LIGHT. Matthewj is right.
  • ronkrisman
    Posts: 1,394
    Norah Duncan's BOOTS (LM) is found in the Lead Me, Guide Me, second edition hymnal (GIA) at no. 11. You can view it by clicking https://www.onelicense.net/index.cfm?go=main.preview, then searching for "O radiant light" and then clicking "preview" on the fourth result.

    I would add to Kathy's comment on "the more customary LM O Radiant Light translation" (by William Storey) that it is, to me, sub-par. It has more imperfect rhymes than perfect ones, and the doxological stanza is somewhat confusing (or confused) IMO.

    But I certainly would not push the Robert Bridges text as a replacement. "Falleth quite" does not fall quite right to someone who does not live at Downton.

    I much prefer Sylvia Dunstan's (blank verse) "O Laughing Light, O Firstborn of Creation" (11 11 11 5). It appears with my tune DUNSTAN NEW in GIA's hymn collection Assembled for Song: An Anthology of New Hymns (GIA, 2011). It can also be sung to ISTE CONFESSOR, but, IMO, that tune does not handle well a slight glitch in the meter (on "universe") in stanza 3.

    Type in "O Laughing Light" at https://www.onelicense.net/index.cfm?go=main.preview and click "preview" on the first result.
    Thanked by 1donr
  • Krisman, what's your translation like?
  • ronkrisman
    Posts: 1,394
    Noel, if you are referring to the Sylvia Dunstan text for which I composed a new tune, you can find it by clicking https://www.onelicense.net/index.cfm?go=main.preview, then searching for "O laughing light" and then clicking "preview" on the first result.

    If you are referring to my own (LM) Spanish text, you can find it by clicking https://www.onelicense.net/index.cfm?go=main.preview, then searching for "Oh luz de gozo" and then clicking "preview" on the first result.

    My translation was intended to be similar to Storey's English text. Consequently it is in LM. A word-by-word translation back into English would be:

    O light of joy and splendor,
    You proceed from the inmortal God:
    Most holy, happy Jesus,
    Heavenly image of the Father.

    "You are worthy of all honor,"
    Your saints sing without ceasing.
    Jesus, creator of life,
    The world renders you its praising.

    In this evening light,
    Lord, we sing with one voice:
    "O Father, Son, Spirit,
    Glory to you, triune God."
  • IanWIanW
    Posts: 762
    The Phos Hilaron is an option in the Ordinariate's Evening Prayer: the Customary of Our Lady of Walsingham gives both the Robert Bridges / Bourgeois and the Keble / Stainer versions.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,509
    I would add to Kathy's comment on "the more customary LM O Radiant Light translation" (by William Storey) that it is, to me, sub-par. It has more imperfect rhymes than perfect ones, and the doxological stanza is somewhat confusing (or confused) IMO.

    But I certainly would not push the Robert Bridges text as a replacement. "Falleth quite" does not fall quite right to someone who does not live at Downton.


    Let's all keep in mind that the facile critic of these classic translations is the editor who approved Silence, Frenzied, Unclean Spirit's frenetic ride into yet another hymnal.

    The doxological verse, in this hymn, belongs in the middle. Sometimes we can actually learn from the Tradition.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • IanWIanW
    Posts: 762
    who art ... hallowed ... trespasses ... wouldst thou suggest these are only suited to Downton?
  • What, pray, is wrong with 'falleth quite'?
    I should think that anyone who faults it
    Would have a countenance deeply roseate,
    and a tongue quivering with nervous regrets
    over his (or her) want of locutionary grace.

  •  
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,315
    The doxology to the Lord’s Prayer was introduced to the Roman Rite after Vatican II as an accretion borrowed from the Eastern tradition, which is where the Anglican reformers got it in the first place.

    It is not in the older form. And for what it is worth, the doxology bugs me, and I realize whenever it is done in Latin that the addition is wrongfooted.
    Thanked by 1BruceL
  •  
  • It's in one of the gospels and not in another, my memory slips as to which at this moment. So they are both quite equally biblical. Neither is inherently Protestant or Catholic. A more interesting question would be 'what, when, and why was the embolism added'. We had the customary not-strictly-Protestant doxology (without embolism) to our Lord's Prayer in the ordinariate's liturgy, but our more recent revisions have placed the embolism in its customary place. But we do say 'For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory...', which, if you ask me, is far more potent and seemly than 'For the kingdom the glory and the power are yours....'. Not at all wishing to be snide, it seems to me that Catholics just really don't have a way with words in English.
  • IanWIanW
    Posts: 762
    Amen.
  • fcbfcb
    Posts: 338
    It's in one of the gospels and not in another


    It's found in some manuscripts of Matthew's Gospel, but not in the oldest ones. It is also found in the Didache, which is closely related to Matthew's Gospel.