Anthem: O nata lux de lumine

Words: Office Hymn for the Service of Lauds
Music: Thomas Tallis (1505 to 1585)
Sung by the Mayfield Salisbury Chamber Group
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.
[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.]
Notes about the anthem
Thomas Tallis and William Byrd were the foremost English composers of the sixteenth century . The survival of much of their work may be partly due to the fact that Queen Elizabeth awarded them a monopoly of publishing “Set Songe or Songes in Parts” Tallis was masterly in adapting his style through four reigns depending on the royal preferences for Catholic or Protestant liturgies. The anthem, for five voices, of 1575 and therefore of Elizabethan Protestantism, is one of the office hymns for Lauds, Vespers and Compline. It is largely chordal rather than polyphonic, with a setting of one note for each syllable of text. There is a vey effective repeat of the last two lines of text.