1000 Songs/Aeterna rerum Conditer--Framer of the earth and sky (Ambrose)
Framer of the earth and sky (ambrose)
Text
[edit | edit source]Latin and Old English Translation
Literal Translation:
Of eternal things, the Framer, Night, who observed the day of the king, And the times you give the times, To Lift up their airs.
Herald of the day now the expression is, Watchful of the night profound, Viantibus night, the light, A night severing night.
This stirred up by Lucifer, Solves the darkness of the pole This chorus of all errors, Abandoned the ways to do harm.
This gathers the strength of a sailor Pontique grow calm seas This is the rock of the Church he Singing, refute the fault.
Let us rise up with vigor and, therefore, French lying excites And chides the sleepy, French argues that those who deny.
French singing, hope returns, Poured the safety of patients, Sword of the robber built, Returned to the faith of those who have fallen.
Jesus, look upon tottering, And we correct in seeing; If regard, the lapse of the fall, Fletuque fault solved.
You shine the light of the senses, Discuss the sleep the mind: Thee the voice of our first is sounded, And let us loose the vows to you.
Is the glory of God the Father Only to the Son and of his With the spirit of the Paraclete Both now and for all ages. Amen.
Author
[edit | edit source]Saint Ambrose wrote Aeterna Rerum Conditer in the 300s. He was largely responsible for introducing atiphonal singing in the Western chuch.
Translations/Challenges
[edit | edit source]The above old English translation is by W J. Copeland, and is in long meter. This means that this text can be easily adapted to many existing hymn tunes. Unfortunately this translation, done in the 1800s contains many out of date old English words. This can be remedied simply by changing the offending words to their more modern equivalents. For example instead of the word "hie", use the word "rush" and instead of "bestir" use "compel".
Editor's Choice
[edit | edit source]The above modern english tranlation is unmetricized and therefore is not useable for singing this hymn, thus the old English translation is the editors choice.
Music
[edit | edit source]This hymn is written in chant with some polyphony seen occasionally throughout. It was written in block notation as with most chant, and can be viewed here.
Tune
[edit | edit source]As stated above this text can be applied to many different hymn tunes because it is written in the once popular long meter.
Arrangements
[edit | edit source]Editor's Choice
[edit | edit source]It is very moving when sung to SOLID ROCK by Wiliam B. Bradbury
Background
[edit | edit source]Author biography
[edit | edit source]Author's circumstances
[edit | edit source]Because many others who wrote hymns at the time of Saint Ambrose wrote anonymously, many hymns are attributed to Ambrose that he did not personally compose. However, Aeterna rerum Conditer is known to be an authentic Ambrosian Hymn.
Historical setting
[edit | edit source]This was one of the first hymns of Latin Hymnody of which Saint Ambrose was a pioneer. Due partially to the decline of the Roman empire, Latin started to become the common language of the church. Thus the hymns of the era were almost universally in Latin.