LUMEN HILARE
Venite, Audite, Gaudete!
Tantum Ergo
Music by
Musical Arrangement by Mark Ruttle
The text is the opening words of the penultimate stanza of the Vesper hymn PANGE LINGUA GLORIOSI of Corpus Christi. This stanza and the closing one, or doxology, form a separate Medieval Latin hymn written by St Thomas Aquinas c. 1264 and which is prescribed for Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. The final doxology stanza, Genitori Genitoque and Procedenti ab Utroque portions, are adapted from Adam of St. Victor's sequence for Pentecost.
Dmitry Stepanovych Bortniansky(1751-1825), a Ukrainian composer and conductor, wrote the tune arranged here. He is best known today for his liturgical works, especially his choral concertos. He spent most of his life in St. Petersburg including a long stint as Director of the Imperial Chapel Choir. Tchaikovsky edited the 10 volumes of his liturgical works.
The tune he wrote for Tantum Ergo became known in Slavic countries as Kol Slaven. In Germany the tune was put to a militaristic text and incorporated in a military honors ceremony of the Prussian, and later German armies. prior to the Russian revolution, it was played by the Moscow Kremlin carillon every day at noon.
Tantum ergo Sacramentum
Veneremur cernui:
Et antiquum documentum
Novo cedat ritui:
Præstet fides supplementum
Sensuum defectui.
Genitori, Genitoque
Laus et iubilatio,
Salus, honor, virtus quoque
Sit et benedictio:
Procedenti ab utroque
Compar sit laudatio.
Amen.
Hence so great a Sacrament
Let us venerate with heads bowed
And let the old practice
Give way to the new rite;
Let faith provide a supplement
For the failure of the senses.
To the Begetter and the Begotten,
Be praise and jubilation,
Hail, honor, virtue also,
And blessing too:
To the One proceeding from Both
Let there be equal praise.
Amen.