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For the past few seasons, during Advent at Word & Song and again during Eastertide, I’ve been recording readings from The Hundredfold. This year’s addition to the list is a Christmas hymn, set to the melody Coelites Plaudant. We’ve provided a link to an organ-only performance of this tune for anyone who would like to try singing it to an accompaniment.
Some of you may notice that this hymn doesn’t rhyme. In fact, all of the 54 hymns I’ve written rhyme, except for this one, but that’s because this one uses the 11-11-11-5 meter of the ancient Sapphic stanza, to which English poets have sometimes added rhyme but sometimes not. The hymn I know best in this melody, “Christ the Fair Glory of the Holy Angels,” doesn’t. Instead, please observe the strong break in the middle of the three long lines, and the emphatic DUM-da-da-DUM-da in the final line. The hymn itself is for the Annunciation, but that’s one of the Advent gospels too, so it works also during this time.
TUNE: COELITES PLAUDANT
This is the first day / of the new creation,
When the Almighty / comes to dwell among us,
Light in the darkness, / while the sons of morning
Break forth in chorus.
Our fleshly mother / stole the fruit forbidden,
Whence we were driven / from the holy garden;
Ours was a dark world, / fruitful and yet barren,
Vast, and a prison.
Then came the angel / bearing word to Mary,
And she, obedient, / took the seed within her,
Gave the Almighty / her most holy shelter,
Maiden and Mother.
Infinite riches / in the second Eden!
The Word incarnate, / cast upon the waters,
Comes to bring morning / from the womb of Mary,
Break open heaven.© Anthony Esolen
Please note that I own the copyright to my hymns, which may be used only with my written permission and with proper attribution.
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