God the Lord eternal
Current version
Here is the version in the Byzantine Catholic Hymnal (2007):
The same collection also included Jesus came from heaven; both hymns appear to be derived from a Polish Christmas carol, Gdy się Chrystus rodzi, published in 1843.
Source
We have two Slavonic hymns, Spas naš narodilsja (published in 1932 with six verses) and Hospod Boh predvičnyj, which I have not been able to find before Father Levkulic's Christ is Born: Glorify Him (1969). In that booklet, the second verse of Hospod Boh predvičnyj was previously the second verse of Spas naš narodilsja, so some interchange has taken place between the two hymns.
Discussion
In spite of its more recent appearance, I don't have any problem with including this hymn in its present form in the proposed hymnal. It is well known, easy to sing, and theologically accurate.
It is tempting to try and combine it with Jesus came from heaven, especially since Spas naš narodilsja has quite a few additional verses which could be translated. But as we will see in the discussion of Jesus came from heaven, that hymn has some significant problems. Hence, think we are better off keeping this hymn as it is.
Several issues in the Byzantine Catholic Hymnal version ought to be fixed:
- Capitalization is incorrect. When hymns are written out one phrase per line, the first letter of each line is normally capitalized, but when music is notated, these "courtesy" capital letters should not appear in the middle of a line of music. Capital letters should appear at the start of sentences, and at the start of a new line of music IF it is also the start of an entire phrase (not the middle of a phrase).
- The use of solid and dashed slurs is confusing. When the engraving for these hymns was first done, we tried to put the English and Slavonic lyrics under the same notes. Because the melodies in English and Slavonic are sometimes different, and because the syllable counts vary widely, this meant we ended up using solid slurs for places where the notes are ALWAYS slurred over a syllable, and dashed slurs where slurs are to occur in some verses and not others. A better soluton is to use syllable extensions (underscores) to show where a syllable is continued over several notes even though no slur is given in the music.
- In the fourth line of music, there are two possible notes in the middle of the line; I have chosen the one that is most often used, and more consistent with the earlier occurence of the same phrase.
There are a few grammatical oddities; the second line of the first verse is not a complete sentence, and "gloriously sing:" in the second verse should probably be "gloriously singing:". But on the balance, I think we are better off leaving them as-is, given the popularity of the hymn.
For the final version, see the permanent articles on God the Lord eternal and Hospod Boh predvičnyj .
Thoughts or suggestions?
Please leave a comment on this blog entry: Four Christmas Songs.