Advent Calendar – 12th December, 2021 – O Come O Come Emmanuel
Merry Christmas!
Danielle and Dave’s Advent Calendar, 2021
12th December, 2021
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
words translated from Latin in 1861 by John Mason Neale (1818 – 1866)
This is taken from the Latin text Veni, Veni Emanuel which was first found in documentation in Cologne, Germany in 1710. It is specifically an Advent Carol and has its basis in the early Medieval Advent Antiphon chants sung in the days leading up to Christmas as part of the Roman Catholic liturgy. Such chants dated back as far as the 8th and 9th centuries.
The words which seem to be the translation most commonly used today are given below. These are different from the words as they appear in the English Hymnal with which we grew up. Those words were by T A Lacey published in 1906 although they were first translated from the German by John Mason Neale having found them in Thesaurus Hymnologicus which was published in 1844. Neale also published the words in Latin. The words given here are as they were published in Hymns Ancient and Modern published in 1861.
The melody which appears here and to which the words are most commonly set today originated in fifteenth century France although the metrical regularity of the words means that a number of different hymn tunes could be used for these words. This pairing was first made by Thomas Helmore (1811 – 1890) in 1851 and published in ‘The Hymnal Noted’ in 1854. It was not until as late as 1966 that we knew for certain though the research of a British musicologist called Mary Berry (not to be confused with the Great British Bake Off!) that it was found in a fifteenth century manuscript archived in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
Emanuel means ‘God with us’ – a name for Jesus coined in Matthew 1:23 and referring to his Virgin birth. There is also a reverse acrostic in the Latin words ‘ero cras’ which is the promise that Christ will come and fulfil the Old Testament prophecies.
Dave:
This is combination of versions from different sources.
I first had the idea of doing a choral setting using guitars. I started to write my own arrangement but, due to time constraints, I settled for using a setting by David Willcocks.
Then I saw a nice classical guitar performance of the piece on YouTube by Rafael Scarfullery who incorporated a use of harmonics (the bell-like tone) and also the little bridge melody between sections and at the end, and I adapted it with additional harmonics and extra arpeggiated chords with a ‘chorus’ effect added.
I had intended to record each part with a different guitar but, again as time was short, I used the same one throughout.
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory o’er the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Dayspring, from on high,
And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Thou Key of David, come
And open wide our heav’nly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
O come, Adonai, Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai’s height,
In ancient times didst give the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
Guitar – Epiphone 355 Limited Edition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Come,_O_Come,_Emmanuel
https://www.classical-music.com/features/articles/o-come-o-come-emmanuel-lyrics/
https://hymnary.org/person/Neale_JM