Hymn to Saint Martin

For MUSIC REQUESTS and QUESTIONS about availability, including Copyright issues
Post Reply
Xotan
Posts: 21
Joined: 17 Dec 2007 21:30
Location: Languedoc

Hymn to Saint Martin

Post by Xotan »

I would be grateful if someone can point me in the direction of the text of a Hymn to Saint Martin which begins

O virum ineffabile
Nec labore victum
Qui nec mori timuit
nec vivere recusa

The Latin looks a bit odd, especially the 'O' followed by an accusative case. I would have expected 'O vir ineffabilis', but my Latin is quite rusty.

What I am looking for is information on the author of the hymn text and details of birth/death, as well as the status (public domain or not) of the text. I understand that it may have been composed as a hymn on the occasion of the 16th centenary of St. Martin's life. If it's in the public domain, I would like to set it for choir, probably SATB.

I have gone through the requests research process with no luck. So I would appreciate any help with this, please.
Ian Coleman
Posts: 2
Joined: 17 Dec 2007 23:41

Hymn to St Martin

Post by Ian Coleman »

Dear Xotan,
I don't know if you've already googled the text, but it'll refer you to the Bamberg Antiphoner - the words vary slightly from your quote, but it's clearly the same text - probably a Magnificat or Benedictus Antiphon for the feast of St Martin (or other saints - it looks like a 'catch-all' text!). I think you can be sure that the text is in the public domain. The Latin appears equally dodgy in the antiphon text!
Xotan
Posts: 21
Joined: 17 Dec 2007 21:30
Location: Languedoc

Hymn to Saint Martin

Post by Xotan »

Dear Ian Coleman,

Thank you for your kind reply. I did indeed try Google (how did we ever live before Google!) but kept getting a reference to a double choir setting of the hymn by Vaclovas Augustinas, a Lithuanian composer, or to a Hiberno-Latin text going back to the time of Bede. (Some odd Latin in there too! :lol: )

Perhaps the fact that I live in France has a bearing on what Google throws out at me... who can tell!

I'll try again but with an eye to the Bamberger reference that you have so kindly mentioned.

Thank you for your interest and response.

Xotan-us :D
Tim Henderson
Posts: 10
Joined: 08 Dec 2005 22:11
Location: London , UK

Post by Tim Henderson »

In the Breviary at

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=QtM7 ... victum&lr=

though that doesn't answer your questions on authorship.

Public domain, I'd say !

Tim
mjolnir
Moderator
Posts: 254
Joined: 12 Sep 2005 14:39

Re: Hymn to Saint Martin

Post by mjolnir »

Xotan wrote:I would be grateful if someone can point me in the direction of the text of a Hymn to Saint Martin which begins

O virum ineffabile
Nec labore victum
Qui nec mori timuit
nec vivere recusa

The Latin looks a bit odd, especially the 'O' followed by an accusative case. I would have expected 'O vir ineffabilis', but my Latin is quite rusty.

What I am looking for is information on the author of the hymn text and details of birth/death, as well as the status (public domain or not) of the text. I understand that it may have been composed as a hymn on the occasion of the 16th centenary of St. Martin's life. If it's in the public domain, I would like to set it for choir, probably SATB.
Well, digging a bit, the closest I found to the text your cite in the last pre-Vatican II version of the Roman Rite, is the antiphon to the third Psalm at Vespers (both first and second) for the Feast of St. Martin, Bishop and Confessor (November 11), though the antiphon there differs slightly (differences in square brackets):

O virum ineffabile[m]
Nec labore victum
[nec morte vincendum]
Qui nec mori timuit
nec vivere recusa[vit].

The meter of the above is not consistent with the meter of the appointed vesper hymn in this version of the rite, which is Iste confessor.

This obviously does not rule out a separate hymn to St. Martin which includes the words as provided by OP.

ns
Xotan
Posts: 21
Joined: 17 Dec 2007 21:30
Location: Languedoc

St. Martin

Post by Xotan »

Ian, Mjolnir and Tim,

Thank you all for your help with this. I am most grateful and greatly appreciate the pointers you have given.

I cannot imagine that the text in the Breviary is anything but in the public domain, so on that basis I'll proceed to work on a composition. Perhaps by the time I have completed it I will have mastered the seemingly very difficult task of posting a piece here. :)

Once again, thanks!

Xotan
sdoerr
Posts: 2
Joined: 27 Dec 2007 14:22

Re: Hymn to Saint Martin

Post by sdoerr »

Xotan wrote: The Latin looks a bit odd, especially the 'O' followed by an accusative case. I would have expected 'O vir ineffabilis', but my Latin is quite rusty.
So is mine, but a bit of Googling led me to references to an 'accusative of exclamation', the most famous example being Cicero's 'O tempora, o mores', although you cannot actually tell that it's accusative in that case. Lewis & Short's Latin dictionary quotes the following examples:
o faciem pulchram ... o infortunatum senem, Ter. Eun. 2, 3, 5 and 7: o miseras hominum mentes, Lucr. 2, 14 : o me perditum, o me afflictum! Cic. Fam. 14, 4, 3 : o hominem nequam! id. Att. 4, 13, 2 : o praeclarum custodem ovium, ut aiunt, lupum! id. Phil. 3, 11, 27 : o rem totam odiosam, id. Att. 6, 4, 1 : o Bruti amanter seriptas, litteras, id. ib. 15, 10 .
Edit: just to add that the text is in the Liber Usualis page 1749 under the antiphons for the Feast of St Martin on 11 November (with accentuation):
O vírum ineffábilem ! nec labóre víctum, nec mórte vincéndum : qui nec móri tímuit, nec vívere recusávit.
Xotan
Posts: 21
Joined: 17 Dec 2007 21:30
Location: Languedoc

Accusative of Exclamation

Post by Xotan »

Thank you SDOERR for the trouble you have taken. Looking back through the mists of time, I still do not ever recall having come across an Accusative of Exclamation. I am certainly aware of the Cicero (In Catalinam I, if I am not mistaken) but would never have taken it as an accusative. It is certainly open to being seen as a plain Vocative, but the A of E would lend more dramatic effect and depth to Tullius's diatribe, I agree.

Tim Henderson's link shows the text at p 563 of the Breviarium Romanum, from which I have taken it. I am not sure exactly what the difference is between the Liber Usualis and the Breviarium, so I must check that out.

Having had a quiet couple of day, and my Muse being of kindly disposition and available to inspire, what I thought might be an Anthem has worked out as a hymn, and is now all but complete, subject to proofing/checking. There is also the question of whether there should be an organ accompaniment. But the piece is essentially designed for a cappella singing, so the organ would be to keep choirmasters who are also organists in good form! LOL

Thank you also for drawing attention to the accentuation. As an Italian-speaker I'm afraid I tend to neglect it - when in Rome do as the Italians do, I suppose. So I hope that the text accentuation will be adequately handled in the musical line....

Once again, my thanks to you and to all who have helped me!

Xotanus amicis suis gratias pleno ex corde aget. Valete! :-)
mjolnir
Moderator
Posts: 254
Joined: 12 Sep 2005 14:39

Post by mjolnir »

"Breviary" is the name given to a book which contains all of the texts of the office--Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline--for each day and feast. I've never seen one which included music, or the texts of the Mass. Breviaries were prepared for use by particular groups, many religious orders had their own; the Roman Breviary was used by "secular" Priests, that is Ordained Clergy who were not part of a religious order.

The Liber Usualis is the an extract of the complete official Rite of the Roman church, and might be considered a choirbook, as it does include all, or at least most, of the music sung by the choirs and cantors at the rites with music, including principally Lauds, Vespers, and Mass. It was not necessarily the book used by religious orders, but was intended for secular parishes.

ns
vaarky
Moderator
Posts: 2163
Joined: 22 Aug 2008 07:28

Re: Hymn to Saint Martin

Post by vaarky »

By coincidence, I have recently heard the Augustinas setting of the Hymn to St. Martin -- it is a lovely, lovely piece!
Post Reply