Of the Father's Heart Begotten

Merry Christmas!

The text of the Christmas hymn "Of the Father's heart begotten" ("Corde natus ex parentis") was originally written in Latin by 4th-century Iberian Roman poet Aurelius Prudentius as Hymn IX "for all hours" in his Liber Cathemerinon, beginning with the phrase "Da puer plectrum." Like other hymns and carols of the Christmas cycle, Anglican churchmen translated the text into English and set both the translated and original texts to music found in medieval songbooks, likely as part of the wider Gothic Revival movement in England. Other hymns and carols of the same kind include "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" and "Good King Wenceslas," with the latter's tune coming from the Piae Cantiones of the Turku Cathedral in Finland. The Piae Cantiones also include the tune for "Corde natus," originally a Sanctus trope used during the latter part of the Mass, with the incipit "Divinum mysterium." 

The content of "Corde natus" is certainly influenced by the scriptural books of St. John, especially the Last Gospel (John 1), John 3, and the Book of Revelation, establishing its connection to the Mass of Christmas Day, where the Last Gospel is read as the Proper Gospel of the Mass. The various Psalms and Canticles of the Old Testament are also referenced, such as the Song of the Three Youths in the Fiery Furnace and Psalm 148, both staples of Festal Lauds in the Traditional Roman Office. The 38 stanzas of "Da puer plectrum" go beyond the focus of the Christmas excerpt, focusing instead on the whole life of Christ, including His miracles, His designation as the True Bread of Heaven, and His conquering of death, sin, and the serpent through the bloody sacrifice on the Cross.

The many variations of the chant available on YouTube highlight many interesting aspects of the hymn's original metre and the trickiness of adapting a poem to a tune meant for another metre. The original "Divinum mysterium" alternated between long and short notes (see below).

The peculiarities of metrical adaptation eventually led to Charles Winfred Douglas' "equalist transcription," which is how it is mostly sung today. However, some recordings of the hymn with its original note lengths are available on YouTube, such as the following recording from Ely Cathedral.

Additional peculiarities include the distribution of the original text's syllables on the tune's notes. Disagreements, such as whether the verb in the 8th stanza (of Da puer plectrum) is "psallite" or "psallat," or whether each syllable of the second line gets its own note, appear across different recordings. Based on my searches, however, the most disputed line appears to be the third line of the first verse. The most common text for this line is "A et O cognominatus," a very Latin way of transcribing Christ's titles of Alpha and Omega. This preserves the meter at the expense of sacrificing the explicit reference to Greek letters when sung. Other groups (such as the choir in the first video) preserve the explicit reference to the Greek letters by singing "Alpha" instead of "A," but without elision, the line ends up with too many syllables, and thus they sing the metrically peculiar "cognomina" rather than "cognominatus." The most sound version of this line, in my opinion, has the elision of "Alpha et" to "Alphet," preserving the original text from Prudentius (which writes O as Ω while pronouncing it "O"), the metre of the poem, and the explicit reference to the Greek letters of Christ in Revelation. 

This way of singing the hymn is audible in the following recording from the choir at the ICKSP church in Oakland, CA.

The text of "Da puer plectrum" is full of elisions, which I have annotated to the best of my ability in the verses of "Corde natus" at the end of this post. The description of the Holy Ghost as "Hagioque Pneumate" in the final doxology (possibly not part of the original text) is extremely Greek, showing the great influence of Greek Christian terminology on Late Latin and Medieval Christian writing. Had "Corde natus" been a Breviary hymn, I wonder if Pope Urban VIII would have rewritten this particular verse, or any of the others, for being insufficiently Classical in metre or terminology!

Interestingly, the 35th stanza of "Da puer plectrum" (above) actually appears to be short a syllable in its fourth line, implying that one of the syllables had to be lengthened. In my transcription, this means that when sung to the "Divinum mysterium" tune, the "-scen-" of "adscendit" needs to be carried over two notes. A similar elongation of a syllable occurs in the final doxology.

The book scan available at Hymnology Archive also provides various written variants of Latin words, such as:

• "seculorum seculis" rather than "saeculorum saeculis"
• "inluminat" rather than "illuminat"
• "adscendit" rather than "ascendit"
• "bustuali" rather than "bustuari"

Under this video are the commonly includes lyrics of "Corde natus," plus the final doxology, which may have been a late addition to the text, since it is not available in other full texts of "Da puer plectrum," and because Prudentius likely intended for the poem to conclude on the phrase "seculorum seculis," making the doxology redundant. There are also pointers in the text for where the accented notes and elisions lie.

BOLD: this syllable goes over multiple notes

ITALICS: vowels (and nasal consonants) are elided

UNDERLINE: highlights a single syllable

SPECIAL: syllable spans two notes to compensate missing syllable

(Every verse is followed by the phrase "saeculorum saeculis" in the hymn, even the verse ending "seculorum seculis")

IV. (1)

Corde natus ex parentis, 

Ante mundi exordium

Alpha et Ω cognominatus, 

Ipse fons et clausula

Omnium, quae sunt, fuerunt 

Quaeque post futura sunt.

V. (2)

Ipse jussit et creata, 

Dixit ipse, et facta sunt

Terra, caelum, fossa ponti, 

Trina rerum machina,

Quaeque in his vigent sub alto 

Solis et lunae globo.

VI. (3)

Corporis formam caduci,

Membra morti obnoxia

Induit, ne gens periret 

Primoplasti ex germine,

Merserat quam lex profundo

Noxialis tartaro.

VII. (4)

O beatus ortus ille, 

Virgo cum puerpera

Edidit nostram salutem

Feta Sancto Spiritu,

Et puer redemptor orbis 

Os sacratum protulit.

VIII. (5)

Psallat altitudo caeli, 

Psallite omnes angeli,

Quidquid est virtutis usquam 

Psallat in laudem Dei:

Nulla linguarum silescat, 

Vox et omnis consonet.

IX. (6)

Ecce, quem vates vetustis 

Concinebant saeculis,

Quem prophetarum fideles 

Paginae spoponderant,

Emicat promissus olim: 

Cuncta conlaudent eum.

XXXVI. (7)

Macte index mortuorum, 

Macte rex viventium,

Dexter in parentis arce 

Qui cluis virtutibus

Omnium venturus inde 

Justus ultor criminum.

XXXVII. (8)

Te senes et te juventus,
Parvulorum te chorus,

Turba matrum virginumque 

Simplices puellulae,

Voce concordes pudicis 

Perstrepant concentibus.

XXXVIII. (9A)

Fluminum lapsus et undae, 

Littorum crepidines,

Imber, aestus, nix, pruina, 

Silva, et aura, nox, dies,

Omnibus te concelebrent 

Seculorum seculis.

XXXIX. (9B)

Tibi, Christe, sit cum Patre 

Hagioque Pneumate

Hymnus, decus, laus perennis, 

Gratiarum actio,

Honor, virtus, victoria, 

Regnum aeternaliter.

Psallite!