There are still a few days of Christmas left until it ends with the Feast of the Baptism of Christ, and VOCES8 is helping to keep the season’s festivities alive. Today we’re listening to “O Magnum Mysterium,” a hymn that – unlike some holiday jingles – never feels overused no matter how many times we hear it.
VOCES8 gives a remarkable treatment to this phenomenal hymn from the VOCES8 Centre, in London. Released just before Christmas, the song is a work from Morten Lauridsen, 81, an American composer and teacher who published “O Magnum Mysterium” in 1995. We have long wished to hear VOCES8 cover the song, after they included Poulanc’s arrangement on their 2011 Christmas album.
The choir does not disappoint, with an especially emotive performance that pays close attention to dynamics, making the sound ebb and swell like a tide slowly moving in. Not only does this rendition create some of the thickest overtones we’ve heard from VOCES8, but the members seem as though they are particularly taken with the beauty of the song.
The song was originally a Gregorian chant and Lauridsen keeps much of the chant-like form the same, injecting it with polyphony to create a chorus of melodies that all come together to form something greater than its parts. The broadness of each meandering chord is juxtaposed by the extremely gentle way the song is performed, almost as if to a newborn baby in a manger.
The imagery is fitting, as the lyrics are a reflection on the biblical narrative on the Nativity, sourced from responsories of the Christmas vigil. The English translation of the Latin text reads:
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!
