Well I’m glad you asked! Because “Maris” doesn’t mean “Mary.” It means “sea” or “ocean.” So the title literally means, if you keep the same word order: “Hail, Sea Star.” So where did that wording come from?
The original lyrics date back to somewhere around the 9th century and have been attributed to several authors; no final conclusion has been reached on that issue. The words present Mary as a merciful and loving mother, with “Star of the Sea” being a title that especially appealed to travelers praying for a safe journey. The words were sung to Gregorian chant music, which is always anonymous.
But why was Mary associated with the sea to begin with? I was very puzzled by this, as the Wikipedia article on this piece just said that “Maris Stella” was one of the oldest titles to be ascribed to Mary. So, never daunted, I looked up “Star of the Sea” and was told that the title is thought to have been due to a scribal copying error. But the name stuck, so that “it came to be seen as allegorical of Mary’s role as ‘guiding star’ on the way to Christ. Under this name, the Virgin Mary is believed to intercede as a guide and protector of seafarers in particular, the Apostleship of the Sea, and many coastal churches are named Stella Maris or Star of the Sea.” Wikipedia, again. Isn’t that fascinating?
I have performed an arrangement with my own choir that is very much a collaborative effort, starting with its anonymous medieval authors. There have been any number of composers who have used the words and/or their associated Gregorian chants as a basis for their own work. Edvard Grieg is one of those, and our piece was Grieg’s own choral arrangement of a piece he originally wrote for solo voice and piano. But there was a further step in the process for our particular version, in that John Rutter was editor and translator. In the notes on the sheet music Rutter added further insight, saying that “the poetic image of Mary as a star guiding mortal souls across the ocean of life no doubt held special significance for Grieg, who was born and lived for much of his life near the North Sea port of Bergen.”
Here’s the funny thing: When Rutter wrote the English translation for the piece, he took out the oceanic reference. In his wording, Mary is the “bright star of heaven.” So on the one hand he says that the seafaring association would have meant a lot to Grieg, and on the other hand he didn’t keep it in. Since I asked Rutter a question about his Gloria last year through his Facebook page and he was kind enough to answer, I didn’t think I’d bother him again with this issue. It’s probably just a matter of getting English words that rhyme and fit the text, with the specific meanings of the Latin being secondary. To give one other example of these changes, Rutter translates “Dei mater alma” as “Praise to thee be given.” But the Latin literally means “Mother of God [who is] nurturing.” A clue in support of this practicality theory can be found on the back cover of our music, which says about the selections in this series: “All texts are given in their original language, with idiomatic new singing translations provided where appropriate.”
(Little side issue here: why, may one ask, do we call the college or university from which we graduated our “alma mater”? The term literally means “nurturing mother,” just as in this song. So when you use this term you’re saying that your school was like a mother to you. Hmmm. Wonder how this wording became popular? I am not doing any more Wikipedia reading for this post, so you’ll have to look it up for yourself. Let me know what you find out!)
Here’s a lovely rendition by the National Lutheran Choir in Minneapolis:
© Debi Simons
