Two items for Advent:
- I’ve scanned the hymns used by the Order of Julian of Norwich during the season of Advent and compiled them into a single document (Advent_Hymns). Father John-Julian appointed hymns for First and Second Vespers of the four Sundays of the season and in doing so incorporated the traditional Lauds and Matins hymns as well. For the sake of completness, I also added the Marian Antiphon for Advent (Alma Redemptoris) at the end of the file. The translations are not under copyright (but see the fair use terms on the side-bar) since they were prepared specifically for the Order into contemporary (Rite II) English. The sole exception is the final hymn; it was composed by Fr. John-Julian himself. The hymns contained here in order of appearance by original language incipit are:
- Vos ante Christi tempora (Paris Breviary, XVIII cent.)
- Conditor alme siderum [aka Creator alme siderum] (Ascr. St. Ambrose, VII cent.)
- Verbum supernum prodiens (Unknown, V cent.)
- In noctis umbra desides (C. Coffin, Paris Breviary, XVIII cent.)
- Vox clara ecce intonat [aka En clara vox] (Unknown, V cent.)
- Instantis Adventum Dei (C. Coffin, Paris Breviary, XVIII cent.)
- Jordanis oras praevia (C. Coffin, Hymni Sacri, XVIII cent.)
- They knew you not (John-Julian, OJN, 1997)
- Fr. John-Julian has also sent the kalendar and ordo for the 2007-2008 liturgical year (ordo-2007-8.pdf).
The traditional (i.e., Anglo-Saxon/Sarum/Tridentine) Office hymn distributions are:
- Vespers: Conditor alme siderum (Creator alme siderum)
- Matins: Verbum supernum prodiens
- Lauds: Vox clara ecce intonat (En clara vox redarguit)
Links go to the Latin and English parallel texts at the wondrous hymn page at Thesaurus Precum Latinarum.
It certainly is good to see those hymns get wider availability. The translation was, of course, a real challenge — sometimes rather successful, sometimes rather more mediocre, but the best I could do back then.
But what I am really reminded of is that I spent a thousand hours actually hand-drawing every single one of those neums! I tried the St. Meinrad’s system, but it took so long to try to re-learn the keyboard that it was easier to draw them.
And now-and-again, I couldn’t find enough Latin hymns to translate and had to compose my own. Since then, I have found many more I could have translated, but I actually rather (humbly, of course) like the ones I wrote.
Thanks for the broad posting.