The Sarum Ascension Office

I have previously posted about the Ascension Day Music for the Mass and also put up an Office Hymns for Ascension post.

But I haven't actually posted the listing from Hymn Melodies for the whole year from the Sarum service books before - so I will now:

On Ascension Day, & daily until Whitsun Day :

Ev. & Matt. Eterne Rex altissime ... ... ... 41

[Matt. (York) Hymnum canamus glorie ... ... ... 42]

Lauds Tu, Christe, nostrum gaudium ... ... 41

And now I can just quote from the Office Hymns post, because it does match with I had there, taken from the Lutheran Liturgical Prayer Brotherhood's prescriptions for these hymns:

Here is an mp3 file of "a Hymn for First Vespers of the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord", from the Lutheran Liturgical Prayer Brotherhood. This hymn in English is "O Eternal Monarch"; in Latin, it's Eterne Rex altissime. You can find the Latin words to this hymn, and some interesting facts about it, on page 157 of Britt's Hymns of the Breviary and Missal (a large PDF file), and the English ones on page 43 of The Hymner: Containing Translations of the Hymns from the Sarum Breviary, at Google Books. This was originally, apparently, a Matins hymn.

Here is an mp3 file of "a Hymn for Morning Prayer of the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord", also from the LLPB. This hymn in English is "O Christ Thou Art Our Joy Alone"; in Latin: Tu, Christe, Nostrum Gaudium. Here's a page from a site called "A MIDI Collection of Traditional Catholic Hymns" that includes the words in Latin and English (a J.M Neale translation), and gives the source of this hymn as "Anon. 5th Cent." (The tune there is listed as "a Grenoble church melody"; it's the same tune as the one in #448 in the 1982 Hymnal, "O Love, How Deep, How Broad, How High." listed there as "Deus tuorum militum, from Antiphoner, 1753.") The words in English can be found on on page 43 of The Hymner: Containing Translations of the Hymns from the Sarum Breviary, at Google Books.

Here's a chant score of this hymn from my sources, one that uses a different set of words:






Here is an mp3 file of "a Hymn for Second Vespers of the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord," also from LLPB. This hymn in English is "O Hymn of Glory"; in Latin, it's Hymnum canamus glorie; here's a page at CCEL with the words from the Lutheran hymnal, which are used on the mp3. The author is given as "The Venerable Bede, 735" on that page.

The LLPB also includes "a Versicle for Exaudi, the Sunday after Ascension": The text, from Psalm 47, is: "God is gone up with a shout, alleluia. The Lord with the sound of the trumpet, alleluia."

Apparently York did it differently than Salisbury - but as the Lutherans did! It's always interesting to see these regional various.

Here are the words to Eterne Rex altissime from the source mentioned above; they don't match exactly with the LLPB sound file, though:

Eternal Monarch, King most high,
Whose Blood hath brought redemption nigh,
By whom the death of Death was wrought
And conquering Grace's battle fought:

Ascending to the throne of might,
And seated at the Father's right,
All power in heav'n is Jesu's own,
That here his Manhood had not known.

That so, in Nature's triple frame,
Each heav'nly and each earthly name,
And things in hell's abyss abhorr'd,
May bend the knee and own him Lord.

Yea, Angels tremble when they see
How changed is our humanity;
That Flesh hath purged what flesh had stain'd,
And God, the Flesh of God, hath reign'd.

Be thou our Joy, and thou our Guard,
Who art to be our great Reward:
Our glory and our boast in thee
For ever and for ever be.

All glory, Lord, to thee we pay,
Ascending o'er the stars to-day:
All glory, as is ever meet,
To Father and to Paraclete. Amen.

And here are the words to Tu, Christe, Nostrum Gaudium, from the same source:

O Christ ! thou art our Joy alone,
Exalted on thy glorious throne ;
Who o'er earth's fabrick bearest sway,
Transcending earthly joys for aye.

We suppliants, therefore, ask of thee
To pardon our iniquity;
And of thine own supernal grace
Uplift our hearts to seek thy face.

When, cloud-throned 'mid the reddening sky,
In glory thou, our Judge, art nigh ;
O then, remitting guilt and pain,
Restore our long-lost crowns again.

Be thou our Joy, and thou our Guard,
Who art to be our great Reward :
Our glory and our boast in thee
For ever and for ever be.

All glory, Lord, to thee we pay,
Ascending o'er the stars to-day:
All glory, as is ever meet,
To Father and to Paraclete. Amen.

Here are the chant scores for the above hymns from Hymn melodies for the whole year:









Here's a terrific Giotto Ascension:





And this Tintoretto - completely different - is pretty great, too: