Day 10 - Personent hodie
Personent hodie is a medieval Christmas carol originally published in the 1582 Finnish song book Piae Cantiones, a volume of 74 songs with Latin texts collected by Jacobus Finno (Jaakko Suomalainen), a Swedish Lutheran cleric. The song book had its origins in the libraries of cathedral song schools, whose repertory had strong links with medieval Prague, where clerical students from Finland and Sweden had studied for generations. A melody found in a 1360 manuscript from the nearby Bavarian city of Moosburg in Germany is highly similar, and it is from this manuscript that the song is usually dated. Walter Bitner also writes: "A copy of Piæ Cantiones was given to the English scholar and hymnist J.M. Neale in the mid-19th century by the British ambassador to Sweden, and Neale may be credited with introducing Personent Hodie to the Christmas traditions of the English-speaking world. With a Latin text describing the nativity and a unison melody evocative of plainchant, it is an ideal carol for inclusion in a Winter Solstice performance.
Personent hodie
Personent hodie voces puerulae,Let resound today the voices of children,
laudantes iucunde qui nobis est natus,
joyfully praising Him who is born to us,
summo Deo datus,
given by most high God,
et de vir, vir, vir, et de vir, vir, vir
et de virgineo ventre procreatus.
and conceived in a virginal womb.
In mundo nascitur, pannis involvitur
He was born into the world, wrapped in swaddling clothes,
praesepi ponitur stabulo brutorum,
and laid in a manger in a stable for animals,
rector supernorum.
the master of the heavens.
Perdidit, dit, dit, Perdidit, dit, dit,
perdidit spolia princeps infernorum.
The prince of Hell has lost his spoils.
Magi tres venerunt, munera offerunt,
Three Magi came, they were bearing gifts,
parvulum inquirunt, stellulam sequendo,
and sought the little one, following a star,
ipsum adorando,
to worship him,
aurum, thus, thus, thus,
thus, thus, thus, aurum, thus, et myrrham ei offerendo.
and offer him gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Omnes clericuli, pariter pueri,
Let all the junior clerics and also the boys
cantent ut angeli: advenisti mundo,
sing like angels: "You have come to the world,
laudes tibi fundo.
I pour out praises to you.
Ideo, o, o, Ideo, o, o,
ideo gloria in excelsis Deo.
Therefore, glory to God in the highest!"
Personent Hodie - arr. by Rutter / Ely Cathedral Choir
Personent Hodie - Cambridge Singers
Personent Hodie - Mediaeval Baebes
Personent Hodie - Elthin
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