In Dulci Jubilo - full Latin
  • EKenney
    Posts: 6
    EDIT- found it in the archives here; sorry for the clutter!

    Hello all - new here. I'm the music director for a parish that does the Extraordinary Form. I wanted to do "In Dulci Jubilo" at Christmas during Mass, so I was hoping to find a Latin translation of the German portions. So far I haven't had any luck. Does anyone know of one? TIA.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    Putting the entire text of this macaronic carol into Latin may have been done, but it would destroy the nature of this form of carol. Macaronic carols, vernacular verses with Latin or Greek refrains were widespread in the late mediaeval and other early eras. A related form is the German 'leisen', in which a vernacular hymn ends with the refrain Kyrie eleison, or just Kyrieleis. Putting the entire text into one language would carelessly destroy the literary integrity of this form.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,150
    See this thread: https://forum.musicasacra.com/forum/discussion/4460/in-dulci-jubilo-entirely-in-latin-bach-arrangement/p1
    The harmonization is actually by Gesius, not Bach.
    Thanked by 3M. Jackson Osborn petrus_simplex Liam
  • Richard R.
    Posts: 774
    Wasn't this piece macaronic from the get-go? I would think an all-Latin version paraphrasic at best.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    Rewriting the piece to replace the vernacular content with Latin would take away some of its charm. Macaronic poetry appeals for its display of multilingual wit. It would be more pleasing (and also more familiar and understandable) to sing the work intact, along with carols and anthems before Mass.
    Thanked by 4CHGiffen Liam M. Jackson Osborn smvanroode
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