Lauridsen Morten

A Bouquet of Roses from Morten Lauridsen

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Image by Andreas Lischka from Pixabay

Lauridsen and His Love of Poetry

Choral composers are always on the hunt for suitable texts. Unless you’re writing something along the lines of the “Humming Chorus” from Madame Butterly or Rachmaninoff’s “Vocalise,” you have to find suitable words. As I’ve outlined in other material, choral texts can have many sources: You may be commissioned to write a piece with the proviso that you use a certain text, or you may love a certain poem and decide to set it to music, or you may have an idea for a melody and look for words that fit, or you may ask someone to write the text for you, or you may write it yourself.

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What’s the Mystery in “O Magnum Mysterium”?

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Master of the Nativity of Castello (fl. 1450–1500), image accessed via Wikimedia Commons, public domain

I’d always kind of assumed that the answer to this question would involve something high-flown and theological about the incarnation of Christ, but that’s not really the case. This text, which has been set to some of the most sublime music ever written, is all about the earthy details of the Christmas story. Does that surprise you? It did me, when I actually took the time to look at the translation.

Before I go any further, here’s the Latin original with the English version:

[one-half-first]

O magnum mysterium,
et admirabile sacramentum,
ut animalia viderent Dominum natum,
iacentem in praesepio!
Beata Virgo, cujus viscera
meruerunt portare
Dominum Iesum Christum.
Alleluia![/one-half-first]

[one-half]

O great mystery,
and wonderful sacrament,
that animals should see the newborn Lord,
lying in a manger!
Blessed is the virgin whose womb
was worthy to bear
the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Alleluia!

[/one-half]

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