Confessing Evangelical

Daniel's revised Christmas carol poll left me in a quandary (unlike version 1, which left me disenfranchised): should I vote for In Dulci Jubilo, or for Vom Himmel Hoch (a chorale of whose existence I was unaware till taking delivery of this less than a month ago, but which is now already one of my all-time favourite Christmas hymns).

In the end, In Dulci Jubilo won by a nose. How could it fail, really, when you consider the origins of this "quintessential Christmas carol"?:

The origins of this carol are unknown, but one fourteenth-century writer reported that the angels sang it to the mystic Heinrich Suso (d. 1366), who, upon hearing the music, took up dancing with the angels.

This account comes from Duck Schuler's fascinating article, "Dancing with Angels", from a 2002 issue of Credenda Agenda. As Schuler goes on to observe:

That's one of the best how-I-thought-of-this-tune-stories that I have ever read. But it does give us insight into the writer's estimation of the tune. How else could we get such delightful words and music? Six hundred fifty years later it continues to delight us.

What gives this carol its charm and beauty is its "macaronic" form - in other words, the way it mixes Latin and German (originally) or English (in translations such as the following):

In dulci jubilo
Now sing with hearts aglow!
Our delight and pleasure
Lies in praesepio,
Like sunshine is our treasure
Matris in gremio.
Alpha es et O!

The music and text were first published together in printed form in a 1530 Lutheran hymnal, and one verse that first appeared in 1542 may even have been written by Martin Luther himself. It certainly seems to have his fingerprints all over it:

O Patris caritas! [O love of the Father]
O Nati lenitas! [O gentleness of the Son]
Deeply were we stainèd
Per nostra crimina; [Through our sins]
But Thou for us hast gainèd
Coelorum gaudia. [The joy of heaven]
O that we were there!

This carol is also sometimes sung in a non-macaronic, English-only translation ("Good Christian Men Rejoice", by JM Neale). Um - why?

Schuler also provides an interesting analysis as to why the carol is so musically pleasing:

The music is in the form of A (a a) B (b c) B (b c) C (d e). The first eight notes of the melody are repeated immediately, but the next unit that is repeated is twice as long. These melodic repetitions are written in such a way as not to be tedious but to provide a pleasing coherence. The melody is in a lilting triple meter and sustains an iambic rhythmic character (pretty much) throughout. The rhythm propels the melodic line upward in the opening phrase, the musical equivalent of bouncing higher and higher on a trampoline.

So now you know.

Last word goes to the last verse:

Ubi sunt gaudia [Where are joys?]
In any place but there?
There are angels singing
Nova cantica [New songs]
And there the bells are ringing
In Regis curia. [In the King's court]
O that we were there!