On The Twelfth Day of Advent...

        The melody of the first carol this season will probably be familiar to most here, but how many of you are familiar with "In Dulci Jubilo" the carol? 

         The musically adept will most likely raise their hands and say, "Oh, I know what that is, that's the name of the tune for "Good Christian Men Rejoice." Correct. However, it's not just a tune, it's a carol, and one with which the translators have taken gross and heinous liberties with.

         Unless you've spent a great deal of time in a choir, you've likely never sung the original text which is a Macaronic setting with medieval German and ecclesiastical Latin. This anonymous text has nothing to do with pasta. It comes from the Italian and Latin words of the same, referring to a jumble of things. And, in this case, refers to a mix of languagues within a given text. "The Prayer" by David Foster would be a modern example of a Macaronic text setting.

        Now, no church congregation in the States is going to sing a song in Latin and German. That doesn't make sense in a congregational setting. I agree, but "Good Christian Men Rejoice," is no solution. It's a completely different text and no translation. It should not have become a substitution for "In Dulci Jubilo." The appropriate way to translate it for English singers, which has already been done, in fact, would be to leave the Latin lines as they are and translate the German vernacular into English.

        Those of you who have been following these posts long enough, know that I have made this case in a previous carol series but it bears repeating, I think. Once you've read the original lyrics, perhaps you'll understand why that English excuse for this lovely carol annoys me.