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----- Original Message -----
From: Bill East <[log in to unmask]>
>
> --- Eugene Clasby <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > Oriens:
> >
> > I know you will know this, since as a lurker on med-rel list I know
> > you
> > know almost everything: I need a translation of this hymn. It appears
> > at
> > the end of
> > Puccini's La Suor Angelica, sung by "gli angeli" who are celebrating
> > the
> > Virgin's rescue of Angelica from damnation. (She has taken poison
> > herbs
> > in despair at hearing the news from her wicked aunt that her
> > illegitimate son died two years ago and noone had told her.) Anyway
> > it's
> > a pretty stunning ending (melodramatic, of course, but still
> > stunning.)
> > I want to play it for my humanities class and I want to have
> > something
> > better for a translation than what my rusty Latin can piece together.
> > Here is the text:
> >
> > O gloriosa virginum
> > Sublimis inter sidera,
> > Qui te creavit, parvulum,
> > Lactente nutris ubere.
> > Quod Heva tristis abstulit
> > Tu reddis almo germine.
> > Intrent ut astra flebiles,
> > Coeli recludis cardines.
> >
> > I'm not sure of some of this: it's from a CD liner (Intrent?
> > flebiles?)
> > I know it's in the alma redemptoris mater family, but anything you
> > can
> > tell me about it will be most welcome.  Thanks very much.
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > Gene Clasby
> > University of Miami
>
>
> I suspect what you have here is a corrupt text of the hymn 'O gloriosa
> Femina', which is the office hymn at Matins for feasts of the Blessed
> Virgin Mary.  I do not have the correct Latin text to hand, but here is
> the translation by Percy Dearmer which is printed as Hymn 215 in 'The
> English Hymnal':
>
> O glorious Maid, exalted far Beyond the light of burning star,
> >From him who made thee thou hast won Grace to be Mother of his son.
>
> That which was lost in hapless Eve Thy holy Scion did retrieve:
> The tear-worn sons of Adam's race Through thee have seen the
> heavenly place.
>
> Thou wast the gate of heaven's high Lord, The door through which the
> light hath poured. Christians rejoice, for through a Maid To all
> mankind is life conveyed.
>
> All honour, laud, and glory be, O Jesu, Virgin-born to thee;
> All glory, as is ever meet To Father and to Paraclete.
>
> I shall copy this to the list, in the hope that Fr Anselm or St An
> Metheny will supply the correct text from their breviaries.

Your note makes me smile, Bill, when you label Puccini's text as 'corrupt.'
You are certainly in good company using that pejorative description of this
text! But please understand that Puccini uses here the actual text from the
BR of his day, which used the version of the office hymns current in the
Roman editions of the liturgical books from the editio typica following the
Council of Trent until the restauration of the hymns in the LH (typica
prima) of 1974. This version of the office hymns was --to simplify a long
and complex story-- built on a series of 'corrections' to the medieval texts
to bring them more in line with what was considered 'proper' classical Latin
as understood by the best Roman scholarship of the day. Most monastic
offices, as Fr Anselm may remind us, retained the earlier versions. You, of
course, refer to the earlier version of this hymn in your citation. Scholars
had been seeking a return to the earlier texts --along with a restoration of
their melodies-- for many decades when the Consilium reforms afforded an
opportunity to do so. [I.a., Stanislaus Campbell provides some further info
on this in the Liturgical Press version of his dissertation, _From breviary
to liturgy of the hours_.] But lest I merit an admonition for sidetracking
into a history of Trent's BR and the Roman battles over liturgical music
publication rights, here without further comment is the text of the hymn for
Lauds of the Common of the BVM as found in the BR prior to 1974:

O gloriosa virginum,
Sublimis inter sidera,
Qui te creavit, parvulum,
Lactente nutris ubere.

Quod Heva tristis abstulit,
Tu reddis almo germine:
Intrent ut astra flebiles,
Caeli recludis cardines.

Tu Regis alti janua
Et aula lucis fulgida:
Vitam datam per Virginem,
Gentes redemptae, plaudite.

Jesu, tibi sit gloria,
Qui natus es de Virgine,
Cum Patre, et almo Spiritu,
In sempiterna saecula. Amen



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