Veni, veni Emmanuel is perhaps the most well-known and beloved Advent hymn of Latin origin in many Protestant churches, not to mention Catholic, perhaps due to the lack of exposure to other Latin Advent hymns of great significance. This is likely due to the work of John Mason Neale (1818-1866) in his publishing, translating, and promulgating the hymn in the mid-nineteenth century.
In its original seven stanzas, the text is derived from the seven “O Antiphons,” so named because they each begin with the interjection “O”: O Sapientia (“O Wisdom”), O Adonai, O Radix Jesse (“O Root of Jesse”), O Clavis David (“O Key of David”), O Oriens (“O Rising Sun”), O Rex Gentium (“O King of Nations”), and O Emmanuel (“O God with Us”). The use of the word O in Latin as an interjection is the “commonest exclamation of joy, astonishment, desire, grief, indignation, etc.”1. Since in the antiphons, the interjection governs a noun (i.e.- the names of Christ), it takes on a spirit of reverence and intense emotion toward Christ. Added to the verb veni (“come”), the entire sense is clear: that of intense longing. In this manner, these antiphons truly represent the essence of Advent.
Furthermore, considering the first letter of each title of Christ in order, a reverse acrostic is formed: SARCORE. Reversed properly, the acrostic forms the Latin phrase Ero cras, meaning “Tomorrow I will come.” Thus, as each antiphon is assigned to one of the seven days (December 17-23) preceding the Vigil of Christmas (December 24), to be recited at Vespers before the Magnificat, the O Antiphons act as a type of countdown to the expected advent of Christ. Each antiphon begins by addressing Christ directly, using a specific Old Testament title for the Messiah, and is followed first by amplification of the previously stated attribute implied in the title, second by an appeal for him to “come” with reference to the addressed attribute.
December 17 – O Sapientia (Proverb 8:22)
O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodidisti, attingens a fine usque ad finem, fortiter suaviter disponensque omnia: veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.
O Wisdom, who came from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end and ordering all things mightily and sweetly: come, and teach us the way of prudence.
December 18 – O Adonai (Exodus 20:2)
O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel, qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti, et ei in Sina legem dedisti: veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.
O Lord and Ruler the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the flame of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: come, and redeem us with outstretched arms.
December 19 – O Radix Jesse (Isaiah 11:1, 10)
O Radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum, super quem continebunt reges os suum, quem gentes deprecabuntur: veni ad liberandum nos, iam noli tardare.
O Root of Jesse, that stands for an ensign of the people, before whom the kings keep silence and unto whom the Gentiles shall make supplication: come, to deliver us, and tarry not.
December 20 – O Clavis David (Isaiah 22:22)
O clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel: qui aperis, et nemo claudit; claudis, et nemo aperit: veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris, sedentem in tenebris.
O Key of David, and scepter of the house of Israel, who opens and no man shuts, who shuts and no man opens: come, and bring forth the captive from his prison, he who sits in darkness and in the shadow of death.
December 21 – O Oriens (Zechariah 6:12)
O Oriens, splendor lucis aeternae, et sol iustitiae: veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris et umbra mortis.
O dawn of the east, brightness of light eternal, and sun of justice: come, and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
December 22 – O Rex Gentium (Haggai 2:8)
O Rex gentium, et desideratus earum, lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum: veni, et salva hominem, quem de limo formasti.
O King of the gentiles and their desired One, the cornerstone that makes both one: come, and deliver man, whom you formed out of the dust of the earth.
December 23 – O Emmanuel (Isaiah 7:14)
O Emmanuel, Rex et legifer noster, exspectatio gentium, et Salvator earum: veni ad salvandum nos Domine Deus noster.
O Emmanuel, God with us, our King and lawgiver, the expected of the nations and their Savior: come to save us, O Lord our God.
Veni Emmanuel is a paraphrased metrical form (LM with refrain) of the unmetrical antiphons. The earliest source of the hymn may be found in the appendix of the 1710 Psalteriolum Cantionum Catholicarum, in which the hymn contained only five of the seven stanzas, excluding O Sapientia and O Rex Gentium. Of great interest is the fact that most modern hymnals contain these two stanzas, translated by Henry Sloan Coffin (1877-1954), while removing instead O Clavis David, O Adonai, and O Radix Jesse. The stanzas in the Psalteriolum were reordered 7, 3, 5, 4, and 2, and a refrain was added. In 1851, John Mason Neale published the five Latin stanzas and refrain from the Psalteriolum in his Hymnie Ecclasiae and his translation in his Medieval Hymns, under the title “Draw Nigh, Draw Nigh, Emmanuel.” The same year, it was also published in Neale’s and Thomas Helmore’s (1811-1890) The Hymnal Note – Parts I and II. The title and first line was changed to “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” for a “trial copy”2 of Hymns Ancient and Modern, and has remained such since.
Most hymnals using Neale’s and Coffin’s translations present the last stanza first, and other stanzas seem to be randomized with no particular reasoning for order. Surely there could be great value in educating the Protestant church about the Latin acrostic and origin for this great text.
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| Original:
Veni veni, Emmanuel Veni, O Sapientia, Veni, veni, Adonai, Veni, O Iesse virgule, Veni, Clavis Davidica, Veni, veni O Oriens, Veni, veni, Rex Gentium, |
Translation:
O Come, O come, Emmanuel, O come, Thou Wisdom, from on high O come, Adonai, Lord of might, O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free O come, Thou Key of David, come O come, Thou Dayspring, from on high, O Come, Desire of nations, bind |
Until 1966, there was great ambiguity regarding the origin of the melody for this hymn. Helmore reported that Neale copied the melody from a French Missal in the National Library in Libson; however, all attempts to find the missal were failed. Some believed that Helmore himself, who did harmonize the tune, composed the tune for Veni Emmanuel based on fragments of a plainsong Kyrie specifically to match the text translated by Neale for inclusion in The Hymnal Noted. However, in September 1966, Dr. Mary Berry (1917-2008), otherwise known as Sister Thomas More, choral conductor and musicologist specializing in Gregorian chant, discovered a fifteenth century processional of Franciscan origin, probably intended for use by nuns, at the Paris Bibliothèque Nationale. The found verses and square-note melody were for a funeral responsory, Libera me, “accompanied by a second musical part on the facing page that fits note-against-note with the hymn tune.”3
The tune name that has been given matches its first line, Veni Emmanuel, except for in the Methodist Hymn Book, in which it is called Ephratah. There are those who believe the plainsong-style melody should be sung in unison instead of in the standard harmonization by Helmore; however, the discovery of the two part responsory would prove an interesting duet for this funeral tune. Nonetheless, one must question how the spirit of the tune might inform the spirit of the text. The minor, modal-sounding dirge-like melody paired with a passionate text of longing and desire could call attention more to the singer’s lowly state rather than a hopeful anticipation of the coming Messiah. The hymn appeared in 1890 in Hymnal and Canticles of the Protestant Episcopal Church with Music to the tune of CAREYS and in the 1932 Concordia Hymnal to ST. PETERSBURG.
© 2010, Mark Burnett. All rights reserved.
Endnotes:
- Charlton Thomas Lewis and others, A Latin Dictionary; Founded on Andrews’ Edition of Freund’s Latin Dictionary (Oxford,: Clarendon Press, 1955), 1232 [↩]
- JSTOR, The Musical Times (Novello, 1909), 785. [↩]
- RF Glover, The Hymnal 1982 Companion: Essays on Church Music (Church Hymnal Corporation, 1990), 105. [↩]
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