RANZ LISZT ONCE SAID: “It’s easy to have opinions about music, but difficult to provide musical reasons for such opinions.” Along those same lines, there are certain pieces that choristers just love to sing. I’m not entirely sure why, yet I know this to be true—and the below is a perfect example. Singers relish these melodies and harmonies! And the text is sensational. Somehow, Monsignor Knox dug up an obscure Latin hymn and provided a breathtaking English translation. Typical of Knox, he provides rhymes even when certain lines don’t require them: a tour de force. Also, notice the stanza where Knox says: “Succor Thou the friendless.” That reminds me another translation by Monsignor Knox—Véni Sáncte Spíritus—where he says of the Holy Ghost: [Be thou] “solace when our friends are few.” It seems Knox has a particular sensitivity to people who have no friends. I think you will agree that lacking a special friend is a particularly difficult cross to bear.
Here is the Hymn for Trinity Sunday, which is #724 in the Brébeuf hymnal:
Rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #724.
A live recording in English:
Have a blessèd Trinity Sunday!
