This is the Introit for the Fourth Sunday in Advent; in English: "Let the heavens drop down dew."
Here is an mp3 of the chant, thanks to the Brazilian Benedictines. Here's the score:
The first part of the text is taken from Isaiah 45:8:
The second half is taken from Psalm 19, Coeli enarrant: "The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork." Obviously the common theme is "what the heavens are up to."
Most interesting to me about this Introit is that the same text is the basis for the Rorate Coeli, or "the Advent Prose," a lovely set of responses sung in Advent:
Here is an mp3 of the Advent Prose, with Vaughan Williams fauxbourdons, sung by the St. David's Compline Choir in Austin, TX; the words do not match exactly with those above.
See more about the Advent Prose here.
Here is an mp3 of the chant, thanks to the Brazilian Benedictines. Here's the score:
The first part of the text is taken from Isaiah 45:8:
“ Rain down, you heavens, from above,
And let the skies pour down righteousness;
Let the earth open, let them bring forth salvation,
And let righteousness spring up together.
I, the LORD, have created it.
The second half is taken from Psalm 19, Coeli enarrant: "The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork." Obviously the common theme is "what the heavens are up to."
Most interesting to me about this Introit is that the same text is the basis for the Rorate Coeli, or "the Advent Prose," a lovely set of responses sung in Advent:
Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour forth righteousness: let the earth be fruitful, and bring forth a Saviour.
Be not very angry, O Lord, neither remember our iniquity for ever:
thy holy cities are a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation:
our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee.
Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour forth righteousness: let the earth be fruitful, and bring forth a Saviour.
We have sinned, and are as an unclean thing,
and we all do fade as a leaf:
our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away;
thou hast hid thy face from us:
and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.
Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour forth righteousness: let the earth be fruitful, and bring forth a Saviour.
Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen;
that ye may know me and believe me:
I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Saviour:
and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.
Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour forth righteousness: let the earth be fruitful, and bring forth a Saviour.
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, my salvation shall not tarry:
I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions:
fear not for I will save thee:
for I am the Lord thy god, the holy one of Israel, thy Redeemer.
Here is an mp3 of the Advent Prose, with Vaughan Williams fauxbourdons, sung by the St. David's Compline Choir in Austin, TX; the words do not match exactly with those above.
See more about the Advent Prose here.
No comments:
Post a Comment