The Story of the Hymns and Tunes Part 9

Come, Thou Holy Spirit, come, And from Thine eternal home Shed the ray of light divine; Come, Thou Father of the poor, Come, Thou Source of all our store, Come, within our bosoms s.h.i.+ne.

Thou of Comforters the best, Thou the soul's most welcome Guest, Sweet Refreshment here below!

In our labor Rest most sweet, Grateful Shadow from the heat, Solace in the midst of woe!

Oh, most blessed Light Divine, s.h.i.+ne within these hearts of Thine, And our inmost being fill; If Thou take Thy grace away, Nothing pure in man will stay, All our good is turned to ill.

Heal our wounds; our strength renew On our dryness pour Thy dew; Wash the stains of guilt away!

Bend the stubborn heart and will, Melt the frozen, warm the chill, Guide the steps that go astray.

_Neale's Translation_.

_THE TUNE._

The metre and six-line stanza, being uniform with those of "Rock of Ages," have tempted some to borrow "Toplady" for this ancient hymn, but Hastings' tune would refuse to sing other words; and, besides, the alternate rhymes would mar the euphony. Not unsuitable in spirit are several existing tunes of the right measure--like "Na.s.sau" or "St.

Athanasius"--but in truth the "Veni, Sancte Spiritus" in English waits for its perfect setting. Dr. Ray Palmer's paraphrase of it in sixes-and-fours, to fit "Olivet,"--

Come, Holy Ghost in love, etc.

--is objectionable both because the word Ghost is an archaism in Christian wors.h.i.+p and more especially because Dr. Palmer's altered version usurps the place of his own hymn. "Olivet" with "My faith looks up to Thee" makes as inviolable a case of psalmodic monogamy as "Toplady" with "Rock of Ages."

ST. FULBERT.

"_Chori Cantores Hierusalem Novae._"

St. Fulbert's hymn is a worthy companion of Perronet's "Coronation"--if, indeed, it was not its original prompter--as King Robert's great litany was the mother song of Watts' "Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove;" and the countless other sacred lyrics beginning with similar words. As the translation stands in the Church of England, there are six stanzas now sung, though in America but four appear, and not in the same sequence.

The first four of the six in their regular succession are as follows:

Ye choirs of New Jerusalem, Your sweetest notes employ, The Paschal victory to hymn In strains of holy joy.

For Judah's Lion bursts His chains, Crus.h.i.+ng the serpent's head; And cries aloud, through death's domains To wake the imprisoned dead.

Devouring depths of h.e.l.l their prey At His command restore; His ransomed hosts pursue their way Where Jesus goes before.

Triumphant in His glory now, To Him all power is given; To Him in one communion bow All saints in earth and heaven.

Bishop Fulbert, known in the Roman and in the Protestant ritualistic churches as St. Fulbert of Chartres, was a man of brilliant and versatile mind, and one of the most eminent prelates of his time. He was a contemporary of Robert II, and his intimate friend, continuing so after the Pope (Gregory V.) excommunicated the king for marrying a cousin, which was forbidden by the canons of the church.

Fulbert was for some time head of the Theological College at Chartres, a cathedral town of France, anciently the capital of Celtic Gaul, and afterwards he was consecrated as Bishop of that diocese. He died about 1029.

_THE TUNE._

The modern tone-interpreter of Fulbert's hymn bears the name "La Spezia"

in some collections, and was composed by James Taylor about the time the hymn was translated into English by Robert Campbell. Research might discover the ancient tune--for the hymn is said to have been sung in the English church during Fulbert's lifetime--but the older was little likely to be the better music. "La Spezia" is a choral of enlivening but easy chords, and a tread of triumph in its musical motion that suits the march of "Judah's Lion":

His ransomed hosts pursue their way Where Jesus goes before.

James Taylor, born 1833, is a Doctor of Music, organist of the University of Oxford and Director of the Oxford Philharmonic Society.

Robert Campbell, the translator, was a Scotch lawyer, born in Edinburgh, who besides his work as an advocate wrote original hymns, and in other ways exercised a natural literary gift. He compiled the excellent Hymnal of the diocese of St. Andrews, and this was his best work. The date of his death is given as Dec. 29, 1868.

THOMAS OF CELANO.

Dies irae! dies illa, Solvet saeclum in favilla, Teste David c.u.m Sybilla.

Day of wrath! that day of burning, All the world to ashes turning, Sung by prophets far discerning.

Latin ecclesiastical poetry reached its high water mark in that awful hymn. The solitaire of its sphere and time in the novelty of its rhythmic triplets, it stood a wonder to the church and hierarchy accustomed to the slow spondees of the ancient chant. There could be such a thing as a trochaic hymn!--and majestic, too!

It was a discovery that did not stale. The compelling grandeur of the poem placed it distinct and alone, and the very difficulty of staffing it for vocal and instrumental use gave it a zest, and helped to keep it unique through the ages.

Latin hymnody and hymnography, appealing to the popular ear and heart, had gradually subst.i.tuted accent for quant.i.ty in verse; for the common people could never be moved by a Christian song in the prosody of the cla.s.sics. The religion of the cross, with the song-preaching of its propagandists, created medieval Latin and made it a secondary cla.s.sic--mother of four anthem languages of Western and Southern Europe.

Its golden age was the 12th and 13th centuries. The new and more flexible school of speech and music in hymn and tune had perfected rhythmic beauty and brought in the winsome a.s.sonance of rhyme.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Dr. Martin Luther]

The "Dies Irae" was born, it is believed, about the year 1255. Its authors.h.i.+p has been debated, but competent testimony a.s.sures us that the original draft of the great poem was found in a box among the effects of Thomas di Celano after his death. Thomas--surnamed Thomas of Celano from his birthplace, the town of Celano in the province of Aquila, Southern Italy--was the pupil, friend and co-laborer of St. Francis of a.s.sisi, and wrote his memoirs. He is supposed to have died near the end of the 13th century. That he wrote the sublime judgment song there is now practically no question.

The label on the discovered ma.n.u.script would suggest that the writer did not consider it either a hymn or a poem. Like the inspired prophets he had meditated--and while he was musing the fire burned. The only t.i.tle he wrote over it was "_Prosa de mortuis_," Prosa (or prosa oratio)--from _prorsus_, "straight forward"--appears here in the truly conventional sense it was beginning to bear, but not yet as the antipode of "poetry."

The modest author, unconscious of the magnitude of his work, called it simply "Plain speech concerning the dead."[7]

[Footnote 7: "Proses" were original pa.s.sages introduced into ecclesiastical chants in the 10th century. During and after the 11th century they were called "Sequences" (i.e. _following_ the "Gospel" in the liturgy), and were in metrical form, having a prayerful tone.

"Sequentia pro defunctis" was the later t.i.tle of the "Dies Irae."]

The hymn is much too long to quote entire, but can be found in _Daniel's Thesaurus_ in any large public library. As to the translations of it, they number hundreds--in English and German alone, and Italy, Spain and Portugal have their vernacular versions--not to mention the Greek and Russian and even the Hebrew. A few stanzas follow, with their renderings into English (always imperfect) selected almost at random:

Quantus tremor est futurus Quando Judex est venturus, Cuncta stricte discussurus!

Tuba mirum spargens sonum Per sepulcra regionum, Coget omnes ante thronum!

O the dread, the contrite kneeling When the Lord, in Judgment dealing, Comes each hidden thing revealing!

When the trumpet's awful tone Through the realms sepulchral blown, Summons all before the Throne!

The solemn strength and vibration of these tremendous trilineals suffers no general injury by the variant readings--and there are a good many. As a sample, the first stanza was changed by some canonical redactor to get rid of the heathen word Sybilla, and the second line was made the third:

Dies Irae, dies illa Crucis expandens vexilla, Solvet saeclum in favilla.

Day of wrath! that day foretold, With the cross-flag wide unrolled, Shall the world in fire enfold!

In some readings the original "in favilla" is changed to "_c.u.m_ favilla," "_with_ ashes" instead of "in ashes"; and "Teste Petro" is subst.i.tuted for "Teste David."

_THE TUNE._