The Lords' Prayer

[janyn2]

http://www.christusrex.org/www1/pater/JPN-english.html

[PaulMc]

Excellent piece of research, Janyn, and many thanks for the link!!
As an amateur musician I've always appreciated that this text has inspired many better men (and women!) than myself to compose wonderful musical settings: reading the range of variants which exist explains something of why it has been done so often (and, generally, done very well, I should add!)

Perhaps (marginally) less often used as inspirational lyrics is the "Hail Mary" prayer (Ave Maria in Latin):

Hail Mary full of Grace
The Lord is with you
Blessed art thou amongst women
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus
Holy Mary, Mother of God
Pray for us Men, Pray for us sinners
Now and at the hour of our deaths.
Amen

Must admit to being guilty of "rewriting" the lyrics occasionally to get a specific 'rhythm' I wanted to use in own settings of both of the above - but I strongly suspect this is one of the main reasons you found so many different variants on the text in your research!

[janyn2]

Originally posted by PaulMc
Excellent piece of research, Janyn, and many thanks for the link!!
As an amateur musician I've always appreciated that this text has inspired many better men (and women!) than myself to compose wonderful musical settings: reading the range of variants which exist explains something of why it has been done so often (and, generally, done very well, I should add!)

Perhaps (marginally) less often used as inspirational lyrics is the "Hail Mary" prayer (Ave Maria in Latin):

Hail Mary full of Grace
The Lord is with you
Blessed art thou amongst women
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus
Holy Mary, Mother of God
Pray for us Men, Pray for us sinners
Now and at the hour of our deaths.
Amen

Must admit to being guilty of "rewriting" the lyrics occasionally to get a specific 'rhythm' I wanted to use in own settings of both of the above - but I strongly suspect this is one of the main reasons you found so many different variants on the text in your research!

HI, PaulMc, Here's the Latin for Hail Mary. More power to your singing career.

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

[PaulMc]

Hi again, Janyn!
I didn't specify, but I've only ever been tempted to "play around" with English (occasionally French or Danish) texts.

When I use Latin texts I consider them "set in stone" and would rather alter my musical rhythms than alter the texts - don't know why, it just seems to happen that way!

[PaulMc]

Total agreement, Niquie, there's a certain majesty about the very sound of Latin.
There's still one church in Liverpool where you can hear the traditional Latin Mass on Sundays. I also remember with fondness the short 'Benediction' service [also in Latin] which you could go to on Sunday afternoons when I was very young. That also seems to have stopped, although certain melodies are still in the hymnal, but now with English lyrics. Example: 'Tantum Ergo Sacramentum' is now one of the settings used with lyrics "Lord accept the gifts we offer" (Offertory hymn)

Originally posted by Niquie
And the smell of incense and the melodic "clink-clink" of the incense burner the priest carried down the aisle.

I just loved that.

It still happens in my Church, Niq.