Lately in choir the students of all ages have been learning a hymn for the upcoming Advent service called “Now Praise We Christ, the Holy One,” TLH 104. This Christmas hymn may be unfamiliar to many today, but Christians for over 1,500 years have praised God with this hymn, and there is a great deal of beauty in the piece and in its origins. The text comes from a Latin hymn by Coelius Sedulius written in the first part of the fifth century called “Paean Alphabeticus de Christo.” The “alphabeticus” in this hymn’s title reveals the structure used in the poem—each verse begins with a letter of the alphabet, beginning with A and proceeding in twenty-three stanzas all the way to Z, not including the letters J, U, and W. The first verse beginning “A solis ortus cardine” begins the account of Christ’s Nativity, and the hymn continues recounting the following events all the way to Christ’s Ascension in the verse beginning with Z.
This hymn was widely used from the early Middle Ages to the time of the Reformation, especially the opening verses which were used in the Christmas liturgy. Martin Luther wrote a German versification of the Latin hymn which was published in 1524 as “Christum wir sollen loben schon” with a tune resembling in a simpler fashion the original Gregorian chant melody. The music associated with this hymn is somewhat otherworldly, perhaps because of its shift from Dorian mode into Phrygian mode, two related but distinct musical scales. Some hundred years after Luther published his versification, Michael Praetorius wrote an incredible setting of this hymn for use in Christmas services, and J. S. Bach featured this hymn prominently in a cantata performed during Christmastide in 1724. Numerous Lutheran organists also composed chorale preludes on the tune. This hymn has long been a beloved Christmas hymn among Lutherans, found in TLH 104 and loosely represented in LSB 358, though not with the original tune. Here is the text that will be sung at the upcoming Advent service:
1. Now praise we Christ, the Holy One,
The blessed Virgin Mary’s Son,
Far as the glorious sun doth shine,
E’en to the world’s remote confine.
2. He who Himself all things did make
A servant’s form vouchsafed to take
That He as man mankind might win
And save His creatures from their sin.
3. The grace and pow’r of God the Lord
Upon the mother was outpoured;
A virgin pure and undefiled
In wondrous wise conceived a child.
4. The noble mother bore a Son,—
For so did Gabriel’s promise run,—
Whom John confessed and leaped with joy
Ere yet the mother knew her boy.
5. Upon a manger filled with hay
In poverty content He lay;
With milk was fed the Lord of all,
Who feeds the ravens when they call.
6. The heavenly choirs rejoice and raise
Their voice to God in songs of praise.
To humble shepherds is proclaimed
The Shepherd who the world hath framed.
7. All honor unto Christ be paid,
Pure Offspring of the favored maid,
With Father and with Holy Ghost,
Till time in endless time be lost.
In Christ,
Miss Engwall
