WOULD WAGER you already know this tune, but probably not by the title of Valet will ich dir geben. That’s because anti-German sentiments arose around the time of the Great War, so somebody had the “brilliant” idea to rename all the tunes which had German names—and most of them did have German names! Thus, most modern books call this tune as “St Theodulph.” Today, a version has been posted that has individual rehearsal videos for Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass. The Saint Jean de Brébeuf Hymnal was careful about vocal ranges. For instance, SAINT THEODULPH is often printed with harmonies that are difficult to sing because the ranges are excessively low. (Unfortunately, not all hymnal editors routinely stand in front of a choir!) The Brébeuf version solved this problem in quite a remarkable way.
Here is the beautiful arrangement found as #694:
* Access free rehearsal videos for each individual voice by clicking on #694.
There are many translations of the “Gloria Laus” besides the one in the video. For example, here is an English translation by Father Edward Caswall (d. 1878), a disciple of Cardinal Newman.
“Gloria Laus” has a verse that says: Coetus in excelsis te laudat coelicus omnis. A priest told me that—because of that verse—choirs traditionally sang this “from a high place.” Here is what he wrote:
I have heard that, whereas the Roman rite (before the alterations of the 1950s) directs that some chanters sing from inside the church before the door opens, in earlier times they would sing from a gallery above the door, or, where such a gallery was lacking, from a specially-raised platform; also that many places had boy choristers to represent the “children of the Hebrews.”
