O Antiphons

The antiphon O clavis David in an antiphonal

The O Antiphons (also known as the Great Advent Antiphons or Great Os) are antiphons used at Vespers during the Magnificat on the last seven days of Advent in Western Christian traditions. They likely date to sixth-century Italy, when Boethius refers to the text in The Consolation of Philosophy. They subsequently became one of the key musical features of the days leading up to Christmas.

In the English-speaking world they are best known in their amalgamated form as the 18th-century hymn "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel".

Sequence

Each text, in the original Latin, begins with the vocative particle "O". Each antiphon is a title of Christ, one of his attributes mentioned in Scripture. They are:

• 17 December: O Sapientia (O Wisdom)
• 18 December: O Adonai
• 19 December: O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse)
• 20 December: O Clavis David (O Key of David)
• 21 December: O Oriens (O Dawn of the East)
• 22 December: O Rex Gentium (O King of the Nations)
• 23 December: O Emmanuel

In the Roman rite, the O Antiphons are sung or recited for the Magnificat at Vespers from 17 December to 23 December.

Origin

The antiphon texts are believed to have originated in Italy in or before the sixth century. Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy includes a passage in which Lady Philosophy appears to cite the series:

Est igitur summum, inquit, bonum quod regit cuncta fortiter suauiterque disponit.

He is the highest good, she said, that rules all things mightily and delightfully arranges them.

The underlying reference is to Wisdom 8:1, but the precise phrasing almost certainly refers to O sapientia.

There were many later traditions throughout the Middle Ages surrounding their performance, and Amalarius wrote a detailed commentary on them in the ninth century.

The first letters of the titles, from last to first, appear to form a Latin acrostic, Ero cras, meaning 'Tomorrow, I will be [there]', mirroring the theme of the antiphons. This is formed from the first letter of each title – Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia. Such acrostics were popular among early medieval writers, and some scholars have taken this as further evidence for their antiquity, but this view is not universally accepted.

A number of other antiphons were found in various medieval breviaries.

Analysis

Each antiphon has the following structure:

• a Messianic title preceded by "O". Example: "O Wisdom"
• elaboration of the title: "coming forth from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from one end to the other, mightily and sweetly ordering all things"
• the verb "come"
• elaboration of the request to come: "and teach us the way of prudence."

Below is the traditional Latin text of each antiphon, as well as the English text from the Church of England's Common Worship liturgy.

Each antiphon is a cento of passages from the Bible. In the text of each antiphon below, the passages from the Bible are indicated by underlining, and the quotation in the footnote is from the Vulgate (for Latin passages) or (for English passages) the NRSV unless indicated otherwise.

O Sapientia

Source:

Latin:
O Sapientia,
quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti,
attingens a fine usque ad finem,
fortiter suaviterque disponens omnia:
veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.

English (Anglican):
O Wisdom,
coming forth from the mouth of the Most High,
reaching from one end to the other,
mightily and sweetly ordering all things:
Come and teach us the way of prudence.

O Adonai

Latin:
O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel,
qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti,
et ei in Sina legem dedisti:
veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.

English (Anglican):
O Adonai, and leader of the House of Israel,
who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush,
and gave him the law on Sinai:
Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm.

O Radix Jesse

Latin:
O radix Jesse,
qui stas in signum populorum,
super quem continebunt reges os suum,
quem Gentes deprecabuntur:
veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.

English (Anglican):
O Root of Jesse,
standing as a sign among the peoples;
before you kings will shut their mouths,
to you the nations will make their prayer:
Come and deliver us, and delay no longer.

O Clavis David

Latin:
O Clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel;
qui aperis, et nemo claudit;
claudis, et nemo aperit:
veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris,
sedentem in tenebris et umbra mortis.

English (Anglican):
O Key of David and sceptre of the House of Israel;
you open and no one can shut;
you shut and no one can open:
Come and lead the prisoners from the prison house,
those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

O Oriens

Latin:
O Oriens,
splendor lucis aeternae, et sol justitiae:
veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

English (Anglican):
O Morning Star,
splendour of light eternal and sun of righteousness:
Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

O Rex gentium

Latin:
O Rex Gentium, et desideratus earum,
lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum:
veni, et salva hominem,
quem de limo formasti.

English (Anglican):
O King of the nations, and their desire,
the cornerstone making both one:
Come and save the human race,
which you fashioned from clay.

O Emmanuel

Latin:
O Emmanuel, Rex et legifer noster,
exspectatio Gentium, et Salvator earum:
veni ad salvandum nos, Domine, Deus noster.

English (Anglican):
O Emmanuel, our king and our lawgiver,
the hope of the nations and their Saviour:
Come and save us, O Lord our God.

Other Antiphons

In addition to the seven antiphons above, a number of other O antiphons have been in use over the centuries in different churches: “O Virgo virginum”, "O Gabriel, nuntius cœlorum", "O Thoma Didyme", “O Rex pacifice”, "O Mundi Domina", “O Hierusalem”, "O sancte sanctorum", “O pastor Israel”. The Parisian Rite had 9 antiphons beginning on December 15, and some other churches had 12 antiphons. A feature of these is that most of them were not addressed to the Messiah. And they were independent of each other, unlike the seven O antiphons described above that formed a self-contained group (as can be seen from the acrostic Ero cras).

An English medieval practice was to add an eighth antiphon – O Virgo virginum – on December 23, and move the others back one day, thus beginning the series on 16 December. The acrostic then became Vero cras ("Truly, tomorrow").

Latin:
O Virgo virginum, quomodo fiet istud?
Quia nec primam similem visa es nec habere sequentem.
Filiae Jerusalem, quid me admiramini?
Divinum est mysterium hoc quod cernitis.

English (Anglican):
O Virgin of virgins, how shall this be?
For neither before thee was any like thee, nor shall there be after.
Daughters of Jerusalem, why marvel ye at me?
The thing which ye behold is a divine mystery.

Given the English origins of this alternative, it has traditionally been the version used in the Church of England (including Canterbury Cathedral) until recent times, and is the version printed in traditional Church of England liturgical sources including The English Hymnal (1906) and The New English Hymnal (1986). From 2000, however, the Church of England appears to have taken an official step away from English medieval practice towards the more widely spread custom, as Common Worship makes provision for the sevenfold version of the antiphons, and not the eightfold version.

The chant repertory knows also other antiphons built using the musical model of O antiphons, but not related to the Advent season - O doctor optime (Common of Doctors of the church), O Rex gloriae (Ascension).

Current practice

In the Catholic Church, the seven standard O antiphons continue to serve as Magnificat antiphons at Vespers from 17 to 23 December. Since the liturgical reforms following Vatican II, they are also used as the Alleluia verses for Mass in the Ordinary Form on the same days. For the Alleluia verses, the Lectionary moves O Emmanuel to the 21st, uses Rex Gentium on both the 22nd and 23rd, and places O Oriens on the morning of the 24th, but the traditional ordering from the 17th through the 23rd is also permitted.

The Catholic personal ordinariates follow the practice for days from the 17th to the 23rd (Magnificat antiphon at Evensong and Alleluia Verse at Mass, either in the traditional order as indicated in Divine Worship: The Missal or in the order indicated in the Lectionary, but also use O Virgo virginum on the morning of 24 December, both as the Benedictus antiphon at morning prayer and as the Alleluia verse at Mass.

Some Anglican churches, such as the Church of England, use the O Antiphons at evensong; often according to medieval English usage, beginning on 16 December.

In 1986, St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, Seattle conceived a special Advent liturgy using the O Antiphons, which has remained in practice every year since.

Use of the O Antiphons also occurs in many Lutheran churches. For example, an English translation of "The Great O Antiphons" appears with the hymn O Come, O Come, Emmanuel in Evangelical Lutheran Worship and the Lutheran Service Book. In the Book of Common Worship published by the Presbyterian Church (USA), the antiphons can be read as a praise litany at Morning or Evening Prayer.

Musical settings

• Carlo Gesualdo, O Oriens (1603)
• Jean-Baptiste Geoffroy, Les Antiennes Ô de l'Avent, with basso continuo
• Marc-Antoine Charpentier, 7 Antiennes Ô, H 36–43, completed in the early 1690s
• Louis Nicolas Clérambault, 7 Antiennes Ô C.221–227 (1700)
• Louis Charles Grénon, 7 Antiennes Ô (1766)
• Ralph Vaughan Williams, plainsong setting in English, published in The English Hymnal
• Herman Strategier, Dutch composer and organist, Cantica pro tempore natali (1953).
• Arvo Pärt, Estonian composer, Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen für gemischten Chor a cappella
• Bob Chilcott, British composer, Advent Antiphons, in Latin, for unaccompanied SSAATTBB
• Paweł Łukaszewski, Polish composer, (1995–1999)
• Peter Hallock, American composer of music in the Episcopalian and Anglican traditions, two settings, 1986 and 1989
• Healey Willan, Anglo-Canadian composer, whose setting is in use throughout the Anglican Communion
• James MacMillan, Scottish composer, has set to music an English paraphrase of the antiphon O Oriens ('O Radiant Dawn') as part of his Strathclyde Motets. The setting borrows harmony from Thomas Tallis's motet O nata lux.

See also

• Christ I

Media

• Antiphon "O Sapientia quae ex ore Altissimi"^ⓘ
• Antiphon O Adonai II Great Advent Antiphon^ⓘ
• "BinAural Collaborative Hypertest". Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  • "Sapientia". Archived from the original on July 6, 2008. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  • "Adonai". Archived from the original on 20 May 2007. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  • "Radix Jesse". Archived from the original on 24 August 2007. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  • "Oriens". Archived from the original on 24 August 2007. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  • "Rex Gentium". Archived from the original on 25 August 2007. Retrieved 28 November 2007.

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

O Antiphons — (Roman Breviary: Antiphonæ majores, "greater antiphons").

The seven antiphons to the Magnificat in the ferial Office of the seven days preceeding the vigil of Christmas; so called because all begin with the interjection "O". Their opening words are: (1) "O Sapientia", (2) "O Adonai", (3) "O Radix Jesse", (4) "O Clavis David", (5) "O Oriens", (6) "O Rex Gentium", (7) "O Emmanuel". Addressed to Christ under one or other of His Scriptural titles, they conclude with a distinct petition to the coming Lord (e. g.: "O Wisdom … come and teach us the way of prudence"; "O Adonai … come and redeem us by thy outstretched arm"; "O Key of David … come and lead from prison the captive sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death" etc.). Couched in a poetic and Scriptural phraseology they constitute a notable feature of the Advent Offices. These seven antiphons are found in the Roman Breviary; but other medieval Breviaries added (1) "O virgo virginum quomodo fiet" etc., still retained in the Roman Breviary as the proper antiphon to the Magnificat in the second Vespers of the feast Expectatio Partus B. M. V. (18 December), the prayer of this feast being followed by the antiphon "O Adonai" as a commemoration of the ferial office of 18 December; (2) "O Gabriel, nuntius cœ;lorum", subsequently replaced, almost universally, by the thirteenth-century antiphon, "O Thoma Didyme", for the feast of the Apostle St. Thomas (21 December). Some medieval churches had twelve greater antiphons, adding to the above (1) "O Rex Pacifice", (2) "O Mundi Domina", (3) "O Hierusalem", addressed respectively to Our Lord, Our Lady, and Jerusalem. Guéranger gives the Latin text of all of these (except the "O Mundi Domina"), with vernacular prose translation ("Liturgical Year", Advent, Dublin, 1870, 508-531), besides much devotional and some historical comment. The Parisian Rite added two antiphons ("O sancte sanctorum" and "O pastor Israel") to the seven of the Roman Rite and began the recitation of the nine on the 15th of December. Prose renderings of the Roman Breviary O's will be found in the Marquess of Bute's translation of the Roman Breviary (winter volume). Guéranger remarks that the antiphons were appropriately assigned to the Vesper Hour because the Saviour came in the evening hour of the world (vergente mundi vespere, as the Church sings) and that they were attached to the Magnificat to honour her through whom He came. By exception to the rule for ferial days, the seven antiphons are sung in full both before and after the canticle. "In some Churches it was formerly the practice to sing them thrice: that is, before the Canticle, before the Gloria Patri, and after the Sicut erat" (Guéranger). There are several translations into English verse, both by Catholics and non-Catholics, the most recent being that in Dom Gregory Ould's "Book of Hymns" (Edinburgh, 1910, no. 5) by W. Rooke-Ley, in seven quatrains together with a refrain-quatrain giving a translation of the versicle and response ("Rorate", etc.). The seven antiphons have been found in MSS. of the eleventh century. A paraphrase of some of these is found in the hymn "Veni, veni, Emmanuel" given by Daniel in his "Thesaurus Hymnologicus" (II, 336) and translated by Neale in his "Medieval Hymns and Sequences" (3rd ed., London, p. 171) and others, and used in various hymn-books (Latin text in "The Roman Hymnal", New York, 1884, 139). Neale supposed the hymn to be of the twelfth century, but it has not been traced back further than the first decade of the eighteenth century. For first lines of translations, see "Julian's Dict. of Hymnol." (2nd ed., London, 1907, 74, i; 1551, i; 1721, i). For the Scriptural sources of the antiphons see John Marquess of Bute, "Roman Breviary", Winter, 203, also Marbach's "Carmina Scripturarum" etc. (Strasburg, 1907) under "O" in the Index Alphabeticus.

THURSTON, The Great Antiphons, Heralds of Christmas in The Month (Dec., 1905), 616-631, gives liturgical uses, literary illustrations, and peculiar customs relating to the antiphons; questions the view of CARROL, L'Avent Liturgique in Revue Bénédictine (1905), n. 4, that they do not antedate the ninth century, gives much illustration (notably from The Christ of Cynewulf written circa 800) to show that they "are much older", and knows "no valid reason for regarding them as posterior to the rest of the Roman Antiphonary or to the time of Pope Gregory himself"; CABROL in Dict. d'archéologie et liturgie chrétienne, s. v. Avent, repeats (col. 3229) his view, but in a foot-note refers the reader to THURSTON'S article in The Month; BAYLEY, Greater Antiphons of Advent in Pax (an Anglican periodical, 6 Dec., 1905), 231-239; STALEY, O Sapientia in Church Times (13 Dec., 1907), p. 812; WITHERBY O Sapientia, Seven Sermons on the Ancient Antiphons for Advent (London, 1906).

External links

• "A reflection on the O Antiphons". Anglicans Online. 2005-12-18.
• Hall, A.C.A. (1914). "The Advent Antiphons". “commentary and paraphrase”
• Saunders, William. "What are the O Antiphons?". Archived from the original on 2007-02-03.
• "Umilta Website on Julian of Norwich".