On This Day Earth Shall Ring: A Song History
"On This Day Earth Shall Ring" is the English form of "Personent hodie," a Latin Christmas song found in Piae Cantiones, a collection published in 1582.[1] Printed at Greifswald, the book presents itself in its Latin title as church and school songs in use across the Kingdom of Sweden, corrected by an unnamed reverend man of the church and school at Åbo in Finland and brought to print through the work of Theodoricus Petri Nylandensis.[2][3] Its 74 songs, all but one in Latin, range from pieces as old as the thirteenth century to items borrowed from German Lutheran sources.[3] George Ratcliffe Woodward, who edited the collection in 1910, judged this text to be a reworking of an older song in honor of St. Nicholas.[1] At least two hymnals indexed by Hymnary.org label the melody German and date it to 1360.[4]
Three Cuttings from a Missal: Initial L with the Annunciation to the Shepherds, ink, tempera and gold on vellum, c. 1470–1500. A Christmas scene from a late-medieval church book, shown for the carol's subject; it has no connection to Piae Cantiones.
The familiar English words are by Jane M. Joseph (1894–1929), a conductor who studied with Gustav Holst.[1] Holst's setting, "Christmas Song," for unison voices and orchestra, was published in London by Curwen in 1924 with Joseph's English text, though Carl Daw, in his companion to Glory to God, thinks her translation probably dates from 1916–1917.[5][1] Citing Carlton R. Young's companion to The United Methodist Hymnal, Discipleship Ministries says Holst's adaptation first appeared as a hymn in the Pilgrim Hymnal of 1958; the hymn is now number 248 in The United Methodist Hymnal.[1] Hymnary.org lists the text in 27 hymnals and the tune, PERSONENT HODIE, in 84.[6][4]
Larry Conger gives it a fingerstyle setting in DAD tuning in Nine Lessons And Carols, his Fingers Of Steel collection of a dozen Christmas pieces for mountain dulcimer, each supplied as its own PDF.[7]
Sources
- Discipleship Ministries: "History of Hymns: 'On This Day Earth Shall Ring'".
- Doria: "Piæ cantiones ecclesiasticae et scholasticae veterum episcoporum".
- OMI Facsimiles: "Theodoricus Petri, Piae Cantiones".
- Hymnary.org: "PERSONENT HODIE".
- IMSLP: "Christmas Song (Holst, Gustav)".
- Hymnary.org: "On This Day Earth Shall Ring".
- Fingers Of Steel: "Larry Conger, Nine Lessons And Carols".
- Image: Three Cuttings from a Missal: Initial L with the Annunciation to the Shepherds, ink, tempera and gold on vellum, c. 1470–1500. The Cleveland Museum of Art.