Text: Traditional
Language: Latin
Ensemble: SATB
Accompaniment: A capella
Genre: General Sacred
Duration: 4.0 minutes
Page Count: 4
Catalog Number: NWC-162
Available from J. W. Pepper.
Note:
O Nata Lux is for a cappella SATB chorus. The traditional Latin text about light is composed in a style reminiscent of a Renaissance motet, suitable for both concert and service use. The music is melodic with changing meters that follow the flow of the text. The vocal texture varies with duets trading back and forth phrases of text, and all voices coming together on declamatory moments. The piece fades away as the text fragments between the sections of the choir.
Text:
O nata lux de lumine, Jesu redemptor saeculi,
dignare clemens supplicum laudes precesque sumere.
Qui carne quondam contegi dignatus es pro perditis,
nos membra confer effici tui beati corporis.
Translation
O Light born of Light, Jesus, redeemer of the world,
with loving-kindness deign to receive suppliant praise and prayer.
Thou who once deigned to be clothed in flesh for the sake of the lost,
grant us to be members of thy blessed body.
Office Hymn at Lauds, Feast of the Transfiguration