Psallat scholarum concio

For Christmas Eve

Words and Music: Medieval Latin Hymn

Translation that used the tune from this hymn is Toll! Toll! Because There Ends To-night, John Mason Neale and Thomas Helmore, eds., Carols for Christmas-tide (London: Novello, 1853), from Piae Cantiones, 1582. These words, however, are an original composition by Rev. Neale.

See: Theodoric Petri, ed., Piae Cantiones Ecclesiasticæ Et Scholasticae Et Scholasticae Vetervm Episcoporum (Gyphisuualdiæ: Augustinum Ferberum, 1582), and Christmas Songs in Woodward's Piæ Cantiones (1910)

Source: Rev. George R. Woodward, ed., Piæ Cantiones. A Collection of Church & School Song. (London: Printed at the Chiswick Press for the Plainsong & Medieval Music Society, 1910) , #4, pp. 5-6.

1. Psallat scholarum contio in hoc conuiuio,
Sed Mariæ Filio non sit obliuio,
Nam is dat solacia sua bona gratia,
                                Studentibus in triuio.

2. Extinxit ignem sceleris hic dator gratiæ,
Extans fructus fœderis, in orbis acie.
Per quem regnant reguli, super orbem seculi
                                Cuncti in terrae facie.

3. Totius orci sæuiit sæui potentia,
Dum puella genuit Dei clementia,
Mundus quidem aruit, sed iam virens claruit
                                Et eius simul entia.

4. Respexit nos diluculo qui ardet fulmine,
Caritatis oculo à cœli culmine,
Venit huc vt solueret, quos æstus inuolueret,
                                Christus suo fulcimine.

5. Conemur ergo lilij hunc florem legere,
Vt nos partus filij possit protegere,
Hunc omnis felicitas oret et clericitas,
                                Vt det nos secum regere.

6. Certatim laudes concinent cœli palatio,
Christo Iesu iubilent, quos regit ratio,
Hunc omnis deificè collaudet mirificė,
                                Triplatæ vitæ statio.

Editor's Note:

Also found in Guido Maria Dreves and Clemens Blume, eds., Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi, Vol. 45b. Cantiones et Motetten des Mittelalters. (Leipzig: O. R. Reisland, 1904), Vol. 45, p. 134, #165 . In Nativitate Domini.

Dreves cites: “Piae Cantiones Ecclesiasticae 1582 fol. B 5 a. (Klemming II, 4.5 als “Hymnus".) — 1, 3 filii. — 5, 1 Conemur ergo gegen das Akrostichon. — 5, 5 omnis felicitas. — 6, 1 Certatim laudes gegen das Akrostichon; concinent — 6, 3 Augenscheinlich geänderter Vers. — Akrostichon: Petrus.”

Sheet Music: Theodoric Petri, ed., Piæ Cantiones Ecclesiasticae et Scholasticae Veterum Episcoporum. (Gyphisuualdiæ: Augustinum Ferberum, 1582)

Sheet Music and Notes from Rev. George R. Woodward, ed., Piæ Cantiones. A Collection of Church & School Song, chiefly Ancient Swedish, originally Published in A. D. 1582 by Theodoric Petri of Nyland. (London: Printed at the Chiswick Press for the Plainsong & Medieval Music Society, 1910), Carol #4, pp. 5-6, Notes 208.

See: The Christmas Songs in Woodward's Piæ Cantiones (1910)

Notes by Rev. George R. Woodward to Carol #IV. Psallat Scholarum Concio (pp. 207-208).

Peculiar to Piæ Cantiones. Text reprinted by Klemming, II, p. 45, and thence embodied in [Dreves and Blume] 'Analecta Hymnica,' XLVb, No. 165, P. 134.

In 1853, Neale published his 'Carol for Christmas Eve,' Toll! Toll! Because There Ends To-night.

For two four-part settings of the tune, see 'Songs of Syon' (1910), No. i; where, to make the English words to tally exactly with the Latin, and to agree with the Piæ Cantiones tune, the pardonable liberty has been taken of inserting one extra trochee in the last line of every stanza.

The Melody, in Piæ Cantiones, is written in the Dorian mode, transposed; but in the fifth line it soars a minor third beyond the limits of that scale.

Editor's Note:

“Klemming II” refers to Gustaf Edvard Klemming, ed., Piae Cantiones. S. Trinitas. Iesus Christus. S. Spiritus. S. Maria.; Collectionum Nostri Aevi Supplementum e. Fontibus Sveticis Depromtum (Norstedt, Typographie Regii, 1886), pp. 22-3. Klemming is a primary source for many scholars, including Dreves, Woodward and others. This volume is available at Google Books and the Internet Archive.

"Anal. Hymnica,' XLVb" refers to Guido Maria Dreves and Clemens Blume, eds., Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi, Vol. 45b. Cantiones et Motetten des Mittelalters. Vol. 45b. (Leipzig: O. R. Reisland, 1904). Note that volumes 45a and 45b are often published in the same physical volume. Like Klemming, Dreves and Blume are available at Google Books and the Internet Archive.

Sources of Latin hymns found in Piae Cantiones:

• Guido Maria Dreves and Clemens Blume, eds., Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi, Vol. 1.  Cantiones Bohemicae. (Leipzig: O. R. Reisland, 1886).

• Guido Maria Dreves and Clemens Blume, eds., Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi, Vol. 45b. Cantiones et Motetten des Mittelalters. (Leipzig: O. R. Reisland, 1904).

• G. E. Klemming, ed., Piae Cantiones. S. Trinitas. Iesus Christus. S. Spiritus. S Maria. (1886). Primary source for many scholars, including Dreves, Woodward and others. [Klemming II]

• George Ratcliffe Woodward, Piæ Cantiones: A Collection of Church & School Song, chiefly Ancient Swedish, originally published in A.D. 1582 by Theodoric Petri of Hyland. (London: Chiswick Press for the Plainsong & Medieval Music Society, 1910).

• Sheet music for some hymns can be found in George Ratcliffe Woodward, The Cowley Carol Book, First & Second Series. (London: A. R. Mowbray & Co., Ltd., ca. 1902, 1912).

• Translations of some carols can be found in John Mason Neale and Thomas Helmore, eds., Carols for Christmas-tide (London: Novello, 1853). By the same authors was Carols for Easter-tide (1854).

• Translations and sheet music for some hymns can be found in Charles L. Hutchins, ed., Carols Old and Carols New (Boston: Parish Choir, 1916).

• Scans of individual pages from Piæ Cantiones (in the Adobe PDF format) can be downloaded from Facsimiles Piae Cantiones (http://www.spielleut.de/facs_piae_cantiones.htm; accessed June 15, 2009).

Copies of many of these works are available at the Internet Archive and Google Books.

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