Please turn to Number 61 (Second Tune) and join with the clarinets in “Sing, My Tongue”.
Number: 61
First Line: Sing, My Tongue
Name: ST. THOMAS (Hollywood).
Meter: 8 7, 8 7, 8 7.
Tempo: Slowly and majestically
Tune: Traditional Melody, 18th Cent.
Text: Venantius Fortunatus, 530-609
Tr. John Mason Neale, 1818-66 a.
Now this is a sort of funny hymn to find in a Lutheran Hymnal, it is, apparently, VERY Catholic, in fact, part of the Liturgy of the Catholic Church. From the wikipedia article on Venantius Fortunatus.
Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus (c. 530 – c. 600/609 AD) was a Latinpoet and hymnodist in the Merovingian Court, and a Bishop of the Early Church. He was never canonised—no saint was canonised till Saint Ulrich of Augsburg in 993[1]—but he was venerated as Saint Venantius Fortunatus during the Middle Ages.[2]
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Fortunatus is best known for two poems that have become part of the liturgy of the Catholic Church, the Pange Lingua Gloriosi Proelium Certaminis (“Sing, O tongue, of the glorious struggle”), a hymn that later inspired St Thomas Aquinas‘s Pange Lingua Gloriosi Corporis Mysterium. He also wrote Vexilla Regis prodeunt (“The royal banners forward go”), which is a sequence sung at Vespers during Holy Week. This poem was written in honour of a large piece of the True Cross, which explains its association also with the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The relic had been sent from the Byzantine EmperorJustin II to Queen Radegund of the Franks, who after her husband Chlotar I‘s death had founded a monastery in Poitiers. The Municipal Library in Poitiers houses an 11th-century manuscript on the life of Radegunde, copied from a 6th-century account by Fortunatus.
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In his time, Fortunatus filled a great social desire for Latin poetry. He was one of the most prominent poets at this point, and had many contracts, commissions and correspondences with kings, bishops and noblemen and women from the time he arrived in Gaul until his death. He used his poetry to advance in society, to promote political ideas he supported, usually conceived of by Radegunde or by Gregory, and to pass on personal thoughts and communications. He was a master wordsmith and because of his promotion of the church, as well as the Roman tendencies of the Frankish royalty, he remained in favour with most of his acquaintances throughout his lifetime.
I should also point out that we have now passed into the Lenten season, the most solemn of Christian seasons.
Lent (Latin: Quadragesima: Fortieth) is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends approximately six weeks later, before Easter Sunday. The purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer through prayer, doing penance, repentance of sins, almsgiving, atonement, and self-denial. This event is observed by Christians in the Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Methodist, and Roman Catholic Churches.[1][2][3] Some Anabaptist and evangelicalchurches also observe the Lenten season.[4][5] Its institutional purpose is heightened in the annual commemoration of Holy Week, marking the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the tradition and events of the New Testament beginning on Friday of Sorrows, further climaxing on Jesus’ crucifixion on Good Friday, which ultimately culminates in the joyful celebration on Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In Lent, many Christians commit to fasting or giving up certain types of luxuries as a form of penance. Many Christians also add a Lenten spiritual discipline, such as reading a daily devotional, to draw themselves near to God.[6] The Stations of the Cross, a devotional commemoration of Christ’s carrying the Cross and of his execution, are often observed. Many Roman Catholic and some Protestant churches remove flowers from their altars, while crucifixes, religious statues, and other elaborate religious symbols are often veiled in violet fabrics in solemn observance of the event. Throughout Christendom, some adherents mark the season with the traditional abstention from the consumption of meat, most notably among Roman Catholics.[7]Lent is traditionally described as lasting for forty days, in commemoration of the forty days Jesus spent fasting in the desert, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Markand Luke, before beginning his public ministry, after which he endured temptation by the Devil.[8][9]
Here’s the clarinet arrangement of the hymn: 061-singmytongue
Back to the usual doubling of all parts, three times through. Audacity “Large Room” Reverb Effect applied.
