Help me, if you please, compile a list of commonly sung (plus minusve) English vernacular hymns, preferably with a characteristic tune that is *not* the plainsong, that are actually translations or close paraphrases of sung texts native to the Roman Rite. These have always seemed to me especially appropriate for liturgical use in certain contexts.
I’ll start by taking the easy ones:
Come, Holy Ghost (Veni Creator) LAMBILLOTTE All Glory, Laud, and Honor (Gloria, Laus, et Honor) ST THEODULPH Hail, Holy Queen (Salve Regina) SALVE REGINA CAELITUM Be Joyful, Mary (Regina Caeli) REGINA CAELI JUBILA Blessed Feasts of Blessed Martyrs (O Beata beatorum) IN BABILONE Holy God, We Praise Thy Name (Te Deum) GROSSER GOTT God, We Praise You (Te Deum) NETTLETON Sing, My Tongue [both] (Pange lingua [both]) ST THOMAS and PICARDY Hark! A Thrilling Voice (En Clara Vox) MERTON Christ the Lord is Risen Today, Christians Haste... (Victimae Paschali) VICTIMAE PASCHALI
In my opinion, these (and their like) should, for any Catholic musician working in a primarily vernacular milieu, function in the same way as the Kernlieder of the Reformation function in a Lutheran context, anchors and guides for the assembly’s song.
The Strife is o’er (finita jam sunt proelia) VICTORY At the lambs high feast (ad Regis’s agni dapes) SALZBURG Down in adoration falling (tantrum ergo) ST THOMAS O saving victim (o salutaris) DUGUET O come emmanuel (veni emmanuel) VENI EMMANUEL All you who seek a comfort sure (quicumque certum queritis) The glory of these forty days (clarum decis) ERHALT UNS HERR Again we keep this solemn fast (ex more docti mystico) Some translation of Adoro te (there are so many out there, varies by hymnal) Ye sons and daughters (o filii et filiae) O FILII ET FILIAE
In the Anglican tradition there are lots more, but I don’t think you could say that they are “commonly sung” in our parishes.
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