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Views from the Choir Loft

Advent Music

Veronica Brandt · November 15, 2014

Annunciation HRISTMAS GIFT GUIDES ABOUND. Professional Santas are booked out. The Christmas carols have begun in the shops already, but at Mass we’re still waiting to start waiting.

This time of expecting is really magic because you have the time to pull out all your favourite music and make grand castles in the sky of all the wonderful music you will sing with all the wonderful people in your life.

Many hymnbooks start with Advent as it is the beginning of the Liturgical Year. My little New Book of Old Hymns kicks off with

  • Conditor alme siderum
  • Veni O Sapientia
  • Rorate Caeli

Conditor alme siderum

The first is a vespers hymn for Advent. It has one of the simplest melodies of all the hymns in the Liber Usualis. The 1962 Roman version starts Creator Alme Siderum. The older version is Conditor Alme Siderum from before the reforms of Pope Urban VIII.

The Story of Redemption for Children (available at musicasacra.com) uses this tune for two rhymes by Fr Abair, one for the Annunciation, the other the Trip to Bethlehem. The whole book is a great way to introduce basic chant standards, though the lyrics are a little uninspired. But it could form part of a plan to infiltrate families – getting children singing these melodies in order to introduce the real stuff further down the track.

My favourite translation is by Fr Edward Caswall, especially the verse:

Great judge of all in that last day
When friends shall fail and foes combine
Be present then with us, we pray
And guard us with thy arm divine.

I can’t remember why I didn’t use that translation in my hymnbook. It must have been an early decision from the first edition back in 2004. Maybe that’s something to consider updating for the fifth edition.

Veni O Sapientia

The second is best known as O Come, O Come Emmanuel. It is based on the O Antiphons – the antiphons for the Magnificat for the last seven days of Advent. The antiphons themselves are also easier than they look as there is a lot of similarity between them. I think Jonathan over at the Ictus explains this one best. He has the link to the NLM article on the origins of the two part tune as well as recordings to help practice the melody and the harmony.

Rorate Caeli

The third is a great one where you have a strong cantor (or three). The choir can learn the refrain and the congregation may join in after a few repeats.

The words can be translated as “Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness” which is particularly apposite at the moment for me here. The past few days have seen a bush fire burning 120 hectares about 15km east of where I sit.

I know a flower

The fourth, which isn’t in the book, and may actually be more a Christmas piece, is Es ist ein Ros entsprungen. It isn’t even Latin (though there is a Latin version called Flos de radice Jesse). It’s a German carol singing of Mary as the Rose who bore the Saviour. The usual English translation revises the text to make Jesus the Rose, which has truth to it too, but…

Now my German is awful, despite my surname and several great-great-grandparents from that area, so I was pleased to find an English version more faithful to the German written by George Radcliffe Woodward. Better still, this version was chosen by R R Terry for his book of Old Christmas Carols.

2. This plant, with blossom laden,
As spake Esay of yore,
Is Mary, spotless maiden,
For us this flow’ret bore;

By God’s eternal will,
A seemly Babe she childeth,
Yet maid remaineth still.

You can read the rest here.

So I typed it up and you can find it (and many other versions) up at the Choral Public Domain Library.

Typing it up I was surprised to find how much repetition there is in the music. It is really quite easy to learn and very beautiful to hear.

All the best with your Advent preparations!

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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About Veronica Brandt

Veronica Brandt holds a Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering. She lives near Sydney, Australia, with her husband and six children.—(Read full biography).

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President’s Corner

    Urgent! • We Desperately Need Funds!
    A few days ago, the president of Corpus Christi Watershed posted this urgent appeal for funds. Please help us make sure we’re never forced to place our content behind a paywall. We feel it’s crucial that 100% of our content remains free to everyone. We’re a tiny 501(c)3 public charity, entirely dependent upon the generosity of small donors. We have no endowment and no major donors. We run no advertisements and have no savings. We beg you to consider donating $4.00 per month. Thank you!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt

Random Quote

These prayers were not peculiar to Good Friday in the early ages (they were said on Spy Wednesday as late as the eighth century); their retention here, it is thought, was inspired by the idea that the Church should pray for all classes of men on the day that Christ died for all. Duchesne is of opinion that the “Oremus” now said in every Mass before the Offertory—which is not a prayer—remains to show where this old series of prayers was once said in all Masses.

— Catholic Encyclopedia (1909)

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