Caedmon's Hymn (Stuart Moffatt)

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• (Posted 2022-07-02)  CPDL #69861:         

Editor: Stuart Moffatt (submitted 2022-07-02).   Score information: A4, 3 pages, 275 kB   Copyright: CPDL

Edition notes: The text in these files has been modified from that which is printed below to make it easier, one hopes, for contemporary chorists.

General Information

Title: Caedmon's Hymn
Composer: Stuart Moffatt
Lyricist: Caedmon^{create page}
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Sacred, Anthem

Language: Old English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 2004
Description: See Peter Bird 's notes for further information about this hymn. It is much fuller than I can provide.
Sweet's Anglo Saxon Reader (1954 edition) tells us on page 166 that four copies of this hymn in the Northumbrian dialect are known but provides transcriptions of only two of them. The one below is that provided on page 166. The Old English text provided by our colleague, I presume, is a third example of this ancient text.

Original text and translations

Old English text Nu scylun hergan hefaenricæs Uard, Metudæs mæcti end his modgidanc, uerc uuldurfadur, sue he uundra gihuæs, eci Dryctin, or astelidæ. He ærist scop ælda barnum heben til hrofe, haleg Scepen. Tha middungeard moncynnæs Uard, eci Dryctin, æfter tiadæ firum foldu, Frea allmectig.

English text Now shall we praise heaven’s Guardian His mighty power, his thoughtfulness, The works of the glorious Father, how he wonderfully gives The eternal Lord in the beginning established And raised and made for the children of men Heaven for a roof, the holy Maker. Then the earth, mankind’s Guardian The eternal Lord, afterwards adorned As a home for them, the king almighty.