Version 1
Words: Anonymous Authorship
Music: Resonet In Laudibus, German, Fourteenth Century
Also known as Nunc Angelorum, adapted by Thomas Helmore
MIDI / Noteworthy Composer
Meter: Irregular
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
Elizabeth Poston, The Penguin Book of Christmas Carols (London: Penguin, 1965)
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),
English versions include:
Christ Was Born On Christmas Day, John Mason Neale
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
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.
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
Compare: Christ Was Born On Christmas Night, lyrics by Bishop C. W. Stubbs, with two musical settings.
