Of The Father's Love Begotten
  • cesarfranck
    Posts: 162
    Used TH1940 accompaniment for Divinum Mysterium yesterday. It was our Gospel hymn and TH82 version at #82 is just dreadful. Would love to know the reasoning or justification for 1982 harmonization bomb and dance like meter. Words escape me.
  • davido
    Posts: 944
    Pretty sure it appears in triple time in its original source. Tune originated as a Sanctus trope - tropes of the era were commonly in triple time.
    The Winfried Douglas version in 1940 Hymnal is a reharmonization of his version from 1916 Episcopal Hymnal. This is an example of the “chantifying” that was popular at the time, a process where Solesmes exponents assumes that melodies possessing meter had been corrupted by the renaissance/baroque, and flattened them out according to the new solesmes equal note value theory.

    My favorite example of this is the O Filii melody as sung in these USA. It started out as s triple meter song alternating half and quarter notes, starting with an upbeat. Solesmes admirers flattened it into equal eighth notes, to make it unmetered. The text stresses of Solesmes having been lost, Americans now sing it as if in 6/8, with no upbeat.
    So despite originating in France as a Benedicamus Domino trope in Trinitarian triple time, in America it is now a 6/8 dance ditty, accompanied with finger cymbals.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen hilluminar
  • davido
    Posts: 944
    I am not familiar with the 1980 accompaniment. The English Hymnal has it in triple time with a mostly new translation by the editors. This is the common English cathedral version and the harmony crops up in a lot of 20th century hymnals.
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