Puer nobis nascitur

Music: "Puer Nobis Nascitur," Piae Cantiones, 1582
MIDI / Noteworthy Composer / XML

1. Puer nobis nascitur
Rector angelorum;
In hoc mundo pascitur
Dominus dominorum.

2. In præsepe ponitur
Sub fœno asinorum.
Cognoverunt dominum
Christum regem cœlorum.

3. Hinc Herodes timuit -
Magno cum dolore,
Et pueros occidit,
Infantes cum livore.

4. Qui natus est ex Marie -
Die hodierna
Ducat nos cum gratia
Ad gaudia superna.

5. O et A et A et O
Cum cantibus in choro,
Cum canticis et organo,
Benedicamus domino.

Sheet Music "Carol for Children" from J. H. Hopkins, ed., Great Hymns of the Church Compiled by the Late Right Reverend John Freeman Young (New York: James Pott & Company, 1887), #56, p. 88.

"Original Melody.
Harmonized by H. R. Schrœder"

Piae Cantiones: A Collection of Church & School Song, chiefly Ancient Swedish, originally published in A.D. 1582 by Theodoric Petri of Hyland.

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.

• George Ratcliffe Woodward, Piae 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. Table Of Contents. (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).

Translations Include:

• A Child For Us is Born This Day - Translator Unknown

• Unto Us A Boy Is Born (Translated by the Percy Dearmer, The Oxford Book of Carols, #92, copyright 1928)

• Unto Us A Boy Is Born (Translated by Editors, The New Oxford Book of Carols, copyright 1992)

• Unto Us Is Born A Son (Translator: G. R. Woodward, adapted by Elizabeth Poston, The Penguin Book of Christmas Carols, copyright 1965)

• Unto Us A Child Is Born (Translated by John Fulton)

• Unto Us Is Born A Son  (Translated by George Ratcliffe Woodward, 1859-1934)

• Unto Us Is Born A Son - Version 2