PBEH Discussion - Nocte surgentes...
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,606
    I'm amazed at the problems with this one, just look at it! What were they thinking? I could go into detail, but it's got to be perfectly obvious to all where this fails like so many of today's contemporary Catholic songs!

    Nocte surgentes vigilemus omnes,
    semper in psalmis meditemur atque
    viribus totis Domino canamus
    dulciter hymnos,
    Ut, pio regi pariter canentes,
    cum suis sanctis mereamur aulam
    ingredi cæli, simul et beatam
    ducere vitam.
    Præstet hoc nobis Deitas beata
    Patris ac Nati, pariterque Sancti
    Spiritus, cuius resonat per omnem
    gloria mundum.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,501
    Especially considering the length of the meter! Gregory the Great had such a great opportunity, and see, he squandered it!
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,606
    He's definitely fallen in my eyes after seeing this. What a disappointment. Well, we've always know he didn't write chant, so what's another disappointment to deal with concerning a major Catholic figure.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,185
    I think it's uplifting.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,717
    translation please!
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,501
    Noel and I are just goofing off. This is a classic, a cornerstone, the standard Matins hymn. All else is measured by its greatness.

    Father, we praise thee, now the night is over,
    active and watchful, stand we all before thee;
    singing we offer prayer and meditation:
    thus we adore thee.

    Monarch of all things, fit us for thy mansions;
    banish our weakness, health and wholeness sending;
    bring us to heaven, where thy saints united
    joy without ending.

    All holy Father, Son, and equal Spirit,
    Trinity blessed, send us thy salvation;
    thine is the glory, gleaming and resounding
    through all creation.

    What I love about these old hymns is their gentleness. Like introit chants, they rouse and calm, at the same time. Recollection is fostered but in an engaged way. The mind becomes active but in a receptive way.
  • BruceL
    Posts: 1,072
    Am I right that this is often sung to the RVW harmonized tune 'Coelites plaudant' (Christ the fair glory)?
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,606
    I see it in the 1940 as set to CHRISTE SANCTORUM, harmonized by RVW, but it definitely goes well with COELITUS PLAUDANT!
    Thanked by 1ScottKChicago
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,501
    ISTE CONFESSOR is an amazing tune in this meter.
  • hymndescants.org
    Posts: 28
    Sorry to sign in 3 yrs after the fact. I have yet to find an acceptable English translation of the matins hymn Nocte surgentes ("We arise at night to keep vigil"); but music in Sapphic meter invites a certain majesty, does it not? RVW harmonized both CHRISTE SANCTORUM (which gets its name from the office hymn translated as Christ the fair glory) and CAELITES PLAUDANT (to which Christ the fair glory is most often sung). Of a less magisterial nature, Fred Pratt Green's more devotional text Christ is the world's light is often sung to this tune, as is a God of the living, sometimes sung at funerals.

    Anyway - working on a descant and harmonization to this tune at the moment.
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