Finita Jam Sunt Proelia
  • King_David
    Posts: 4
    Does anyone know of sheet music available for the 4-part hymn The Strife is O'er with the Latin words of the poem Finita Jam Sunt Proelia rather than the English words? I am unable to find such an arrangement.
  • ViolaViola
    Posts: 411
    We have sung the Latin words to the tune Vulpius which exists in various SATB arrangements as The Strife is o'er and also other Easter words. I couldn't find a printed version either, so Sibeliused the tune as used for the English and wrote the Latin words underneath. We began with the three Alleluias at the start of Finita sunt Proelia set to the last line of Vulpius then just carried on.
  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,471
    The New Westminster Hymnal had it set to SURREXIT. But although it gives the organ accompiment the voices are unison. Download available at CCWatershed, (4th item) hymn no 243.
  • King_David
    Posts: 4
    My apologies, I should have asked more specifically - I am looking for an arrangement with the hymn tune VICTORY. If it does not yet exist, I may just find the Latin words online and type it up with the harmonies in MuseScore.

    Thank you Viola and a_f_hawkins for the great suggestions; those both look like good alternatives.
  • CGM
    Posts: 700
    I pulled the text from here and added it to a file I already had.

    Frankly, I don't think it works very well — the Latin accents, especially in the third line of each verse, don't line up with the musical stresses. It would be pretty awkward to sing. (This is probably why hymnals offer different tunes with this Latin text.)
    TheStrifeIs_SATB_LatinText.pdf
    118K
  • King_David
    Posts: 4
    Thank you so much!

    Honestly, I don't think it's terribly awkward - given the diversity of Latin pronunciations (Classical, Italianate, French, German, etc.) with their own stress and vowel length patterns, it's no surprise that both the ictus in Gregorian Chant and the metric stress in sacred polyphony often seem to depart from what we would consider the syllabic stress, and sung well this simply brings out the words in a different way. Maybe this is a topic for a new thread, though!
    Thanked by 1Patricia Cecilia
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