Resonet in laudibus

Version 5,
See Resonet In Laudibus, Version 1, with notes and links to translations.

Traditional Words, 14^th Century

Music: Resonet in Laudibus
MIDI / Noteworthy Composer

Source: Elizabeth Poston, ed., The Penguin Book of Christmas Carols (Penguin Books: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, 1965)

1. Resonet in laudibus,
Cum jucundis plausibus,
Sion cum fidelibus,
Apparuit que genuit Maria.

2. Christus natus hodie,
Ex Maria virgine,
Sine virile semine
Apparuit que genuit Maria.

3. Pueri concinite,
Nato regi psalite,
Voce pia alicite
Apparuit que genuit Maria.

4. Sion lauda Dominum,
Salvatorem hominum,
Purgatorem criminum,
Apparuit que genuit Maria.

5. Sunt impleta quae praedixit Gabriel,
Eia, Eia,
Virgo Deum genuit
Quem divina voluit clementia.

6. Hodie apparuit,
Appamit in Israel,
Ex Maria virgine
Est natus Rex.

English translations include Christ Was Born on Christmas Day and Now With Gladness Carol We.

Elizabeth Poston, The Penguin Book of Christmas Carols

Resonet In Laudibus. Fourteenth century. Referred to by Wicel (1550) as ‘one of the chief Christmas songs of joy’. According to Dreves, its oldest known form is in the Mosburg Gradual of 1360. The words of Joseph, lieber Joseph mein (no. 28) were sung also to this tune, as were several other texts. It occurs in several fifteenth-, sixteenth-, and seventeenth-century printed collections, Catholic and Lutheran. The many versions and parodies of this carol’s text in German sacred songbooks are evidence of the carol’s immense popularity. The fourteenth-century melody exists in various versions and is to be found in most of the German sixteenth- and seventeenth-century songbooks and in Cantiones. For what not to do with the words see Introduction page 15. [‘wreath the holly, twine the bay’.]

Editor's Note

Another translation, "Let the Voice of Praise Resound" (Carol #55), is found in Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrott, The New Oxford Book of Carols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992). The same tune is employed with "Joseph, Lieber Joseph Mein" ("Joseph, Dearest Joseph Mine"). Keyte and Parrott have an extensive history of "Resonet In Laudibus" following the translations.

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