O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

This advent song has a varied, but interesting history.

"The hymn is a metrical paraphrase of the O Antiphons, a series of plainchant antiphons attached to the Magnificat at Vespers over the final days before Christmas...

"The prehistory of the text stretches back to the origins of the O Antiphons themselves, which were in existence by, at the latest, the eighth century. However, to speak meaningfully of the text of the hymn per se, they would need to be paraphrased in strophic, metrical form. It is certainly within the realm of possibility that efforts along those lines could have been made quite early; we know, for instance, that they were paraphrased extensively by the English poet Cynewulf in a poem written before the year 800. However, despite popular imagination of an early origin for "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel," the hymn's history is first substantiated only much later.

"While "O come, O come, Emmanuel" is often linked with the 12th century, the earliest surviving evidence of the hymn's text is in the seventh edition of Psalteriolum Cantionum Catholicarum, which was published in Cologne in 1710. That hymnal was a major force in the history of German church music: first assembled by Jesuit hymnographer, Johannes Herringsdorf in 1610 and receiving numerous revised editions through 1868, it achieved enormous impact due to its use in Jesuit schools.

"The text of the Psalteriolum Cantionum Catholicarum version is essentially expanded, rather than altered, over the subsequent centuries. That version exhibits all of the hymn's characteristic qualities: it is strophic and metrical, and the order is altered so that the last of the O Antiphons (the titular "Veni Emmanuel") becomes the first verse of the hymn. Each stanza consists of a four-line verse, which adapts one of the antiphons, and a new two-line refrain ("Gaude, gaude! Emmanuel \ nascetur pro te, Israel," i.e. "Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel \ Shall come [lit. 'is born'] to thee, O Israel"), which provides an explicitly Advent-oriented response to the petition of the verse.

"This first version of the hymn includes five verses, corresponding to five of the seven standard O Antiphons, in the following order:

1. "Veni, veni Emmanuel!" = "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"
2. "Veni, O Jesse Virgula" = "O Come, Thou Rod of Jesse"
3. "Veni, veni, O Oriens" = "O come, Thou Dayspring, from on high"
4. "Veni, clavis Davidica" = "O come, Thou Key of David, come"
5. "Veni, veni, Adonai" = "O come, Adonai, Lord of might"

"In 1844, "Veni, veni Emmanuel" was included in the second volume of Thesaurus Hymnologicus, a monumental collection by the German hymnologist Hermann Adalbert Daniel. While the Latin text in this version was unchanged from Psalteriolum Cantionum Catholicarum, Daniel's work would prove significant for the hymn in two ways. First, the Thesaurus would help to ensure a continued life for the Latin version of the hymn even as the Psalteriolumcame to the end of its long history in print. Second — and even more significantly for the English-speaking world — it was fromThesaurus Hymnologicus that John Mason Neale would come to know the hymn. Neale would both publish the Latin version of the hymn in Britain and translate the first (and still most important) English versions.

"This five-verse version of the hymn left two of the O Antiphons unused. Possibly under the influence of the Cecilian Movement in Germany, two new verses — "Veni, O Sapientia" (lit. "Come, O Wisdom") and "Veni, Rex Gentium" (lit. "Come, King of Peoples") — were added that adapted the remaining antiphons. No precise date or authorship is known for these verses. At present, their first known publication is in Joseph Hermann Mohr's Cantiones Sacrae of 1878, which prints a seven-stanza Latin version in the order of the antiphons (i.e. with "Sapientia" as the first verse and "Emmanuel" as the last verse).

So, that is the long and varied history of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. I don't think that I've ever seen the last two verses that the Germans added around 1878. 

Just studying these two hymns has been very interesting! I hope that you find it so. Sorry if I bore you. :) But, I would like to encourage you to really read the lyrics to these age old hymns. Read them as if they were a peom. Erase the music from your mind and put the enunciation where it should be. You will be blessed!

O come, O come, Emmanuel,

And ransom captive Israel,

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high, 

Who orderest all things mightily;

To us the path of knowledge show,

And teach us in her ways to go.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free

Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;

From depths of hell Thy people save,

And give them victory over the grave.

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer

Our spirits by Thine advent here;

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,

And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,

And open wide our heavenly home;

Make safe the way that leads on high,

And close the path to misery.

O come, O come, great Lord of might,

Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height

In ancient times once gave the law

In cloud and majesty and awe.

O come, Desire of nations, bind

In one the hearts of all mankind;

Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,

And be Thyself our King of Peace.