Resonet In Laudibus

For Christmas Day

Version 1

Words: Anonymous Authorship

1. Resonemus laudibus
Cum jocunditatibus
Ecclesiam fidelibus
Appanuit quem genuit Maria

2. Deus fecit hominem
Ad saum imaginem
Et similitudinem
Appanuit quem genuit Maria

3. Deus fecit omnia
Celum, Terram, maria,
Cunctaque nascentia
Appanuit quem genuit Maria

4. Ero nostro concio
In chrodis et organo
Benedictat Domino,
Appanuit quem genuit Maria

5. Et Deo qui venias
Donat et leticas
Nos eidem gracias.
Appanuit quem genuit Maria

Sheet Music from Nicola A. Montani, ed., The St. Gregory Hymnal and Catholic Choir Book. Complete Edition. (Philadelphia: St. Gregory Guild, 1920), #156, p. 241.

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’.]

Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrott have a history of Resonet In Laudibus in The New Oxford Book of Carols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992),

Three English versions include:

• Christ Was Born On Christmas Day, Elizabeth Poston, copyright 1965

• Let the Voice of Praise Resound, Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrott, The New Oxford Book of Carols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), Carol #55

• Long Ago And Far Away,  Edward Traill Horn III (1909-), copyright 1958

Another English translation of Resonet In Laudibus is Christ Was Born On Christmas Day, Rev. John Mason Neale, in Carols for Christmas-tide, 1853, from Piae Cantiones, 1582.

Two literal translations appear on the Memoria Press web site. One is a translation by Kira Maffet; the other is described as the official Memoria Press version. They are not reproduced here due to copyright.

Charles Hutchins, Carols Old and Carols New (Boston: Parish Choir, 1916), prints the Neale translation with four tunes:

• Christ Was Born #337 (Resonet In Laudibus, German, 14th Century)

• Christ Was Born #375 (No attribution)

• Christ Was Born #430 (Music by George Edgar Oliver)

• Christ Was Born #508 (Music by C. L. Williams)

George Ratcliffe Woodward reproduces the original four verses as commonly found in Christ Was Born On Christmas Day, and with the commonly associated tune, but with four additional verses and an additional tune.

Other Latin Versions

• Resonet In Laudibus, Version 2
• Resonet In Laudibus, Version 3
• Resonet In Laudibus, Version 4
• Resonet In Laudibus, Version 5

Compare: Christ Was Born On Christmas Night, lyrics by Bishop C. W. Stubbs, with two musical settings.

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), also inspired from carols from Piae Cantiones.

• 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).