Urban VIII's classicizing revision of the Latin hymns has received more attention in recent years thanks to examples on New Liturgical Movement. The Michaelmas hymn was so altered that it adapted to an entirely different meter and verse structure. The hymn for the octave of Pentecost, Veni, Creator Spiritus, received a more modest revision, with hardly anything changing until the Doxology.
The choice to revise this hymn at all is curious in light of the changes Urban's committee of Jesuits, priests unbound to the communal Office, decided to make. Almost all the changes, except for one line, were to word order and not to vocabulary or verse. Why, for instance, change "donum Dei altissimi" to "altissimi donum Dei"? In the older order the shift from donum to Dei coincided with the melody, making a more seamlessly singable text than the slightly awkward result for that line. The only noticeable difference was the change of "dexterae Dei tu digitus" to "digitus paternae dexterae".
Then comes the doxology. According to the generally reliable, but not always current, Catholic Encyclopedia the Congregation of Sacred Rites did not decide until 1899 that the Paschal doxology would be used on all occasions for this hymn. The oldest doxology given for this hymn ("Sit laus Patri cum Filio / Sancto simul Paraclito / Nobisque mittat Filius / Charisma Sancti Spiritus") fell out of use during the Middle Ages. Certainly the Congregation for Rites' decision was not very innovative, as 19th century laymen's books generally note the Paschaltide ending is always used.
As an interesting aside, the 1875 Serving Boy's Manual and Book of Public Devotions gives the pre-Urban proper doxologies for all hymns. With Gregorian chant out of style in favor of polyphony and choral music throughout the Counter-Reformation and Baroque ages, the older texts may have benefited from the fact the better music of those styles was generally written before Papa Barberini. Much like Pius XII's psalter, Urban's hymnody may have been more widely ignored than most are aware.
Traditional Text
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Urban VIII Revision
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Veni, Creator Spiritus,
mentes tuorum visita,
imple superna gratia,
quae tu creasti pectora.
Qui Paraclitus diceris,
donum Dei altissimi,
fons vivus, ignis, caritas,
et spiritalis unctio.
Tu septiformis munere,
dexterae Dei tu digitus,
tu rite promissum Patris,
sermone ditans guttura.
Accende lumen sensibus,
infunde amorem cordibus,
infirma nostri corporis
virtute firmans perpeti.
Hostem repellas longius,
pacemque dones protinus:
ductore sic te praevio,
vitemus omne noxium.
Per te sciamus, da, Patrem,
noscamus atque Filium,
te utriusque Spiritum
credamus omni tempore.
Gloria Patri Domino,
Natoque, qui a mortuis
surrexit, ac Paraclito,
in saeculorum saecula.
Amen.
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Veni, Creator Spiritus,
mentes tuorum visita,
imple superna gratia
quae tu creasti pectora.
Qui diceris Paraclitus,
altissimi donum Dei,
fons vivus, ignis, caritas,
et spiritalis unctio.
Tu, septiformis munere,
digitus paternae dexterae,
Tu rite promissum Patris,
sermone ditans guttura.
Accende lumen sensibus:
infunde amorem cordibus:
infirma nostri corporis
virtute firmans perpeti.
Hostem repellas longius,
pacemque dones protinus:
ductore sic te praevio
vitemus omne noxium.
Per te sciamus da Patrem,
noscamus atque Filium;
Teque utriusque Spiritum
credamus omni tempore.
Deo Patri sit gloria,
et Filio, qui a mortuis
surrexit, ac Paraclito,
in saeculorum saecula.
Amen.
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The PDF of the 1912 Antiphonale Romanum which I use to sing the traditional hymns (given in the appendix), as I have more intently been de-urbanizing the hymns for my own use. The appendix gives two doxologies for the "Veni Creator". The notes say to use the Paschal Doxology (i.e. Gloria Patri Domino...) when it is sung at Vespers and Terce this week (i.e. in its official liturgical places), and otherwise to use the older doxology when it is sung votivally. This year is the first I've taken notice of that other doxology.
ReplyDeleteAs one well acquainted with singing the Urban hymns, as these were in my first and lasting exposure to sung Offices, I'm not sure if I agree with the relative singability differences, but this is likely due to having to reset my brain to getting used to the original texts. The doxology of the Passiontide/Holy Cross Matins/Lauds hymn in the original text is very tricky ("sit usquequaque..."). Of course it doesn't help that the chant for the original texts are not usually given for all verses, but only the first, which is why I have begun a project to render all the original hymns in their full chant notation for every verse. This lock down provided a golden opportunity to return to singing most of the day's Hours and returning to older liturgical projects.
I only meant that one line was more singable. Some hymns, like Vexilla Regis, are slightly more singable under the Urban redactions than in the original, although that might just be my acclamation to them. It would be odd if it were harder to sing them according to the words and melody that were originally composed.
DeleteFascinating on the additional doxologies available! I believe the Congregation for Rites' decision meant the Pascal doxology was the only one to be used when the hymn is mandated liturgically, which would be Pentecost and ordinations. Perhaps votive use as a motet or during devotions allows the proper endings. Then again, one thinks of Fortescue's comment that the congregation's decisions are "absurd to the historian."
The traditional text of the first line of the second stanza is actually Qui Paraclitus diceris, which is very interesting because that makes the penultimate syllable on Paralictus long, resulting in the pronunciation Paraclítus. Rabanus Maurus, or whoever the author was, was aware that the penult of the Greek Παράκλητος was long and preserved the quantity. The Jesuits who altered it, for all their classicizing obsession with proper scansion, actually undid the "classical" quantity of the original by changing it to Paráclitus.
ReplyDeleteAnnoyingly, the monastic breviary & those of the religious orders keep the original text but mark the accent according to the pronunciation of the revised text: Qui Paraclítus díceris, which is nonsense. The first edition of the Tridentine breviary refrained from marking any accent on Paraclitus at all.
You all know what you're talking about; can you point me to a public (published online or in print) explanation of the choices that went into the texts in the Liber hymnarius from Solesmes? The specific emendation that prompted my (more general) interest is the fact that the line, in the fourth strophe of the Aeterne rex altissime for Ascension is now 'culpat caro, purgat caro, regnat caro, Verbum Dei' instead of '... Dei caro'.
ReplyDeleteBut I've just remembered a name: Lentini, a Benedictine; perhaps searching for it will help, if I've remembered the name correctly.