Ben Jonson: I Sing the Birth Was Borne to Night: Hymn

 Christ is born!  Glorify Him!

As a supplement to my typical translations, I am beginning to post music as well.  Some of it includes simple transcriptions of hymns (such as my recent transcription of the chant Humani Generis Cessent Suspiria); others will be translations of hymns set to old melodies.  Some may be original poems of mine set to old melodies; still others will be poems (my own or others') set to music I have composed.  I have no delusions of grandeur regarding my own musical ability, but I think some of the choices of texts, at least, might warrant my meager attempts.  The hymn included here is an example.

The poem set here is by Ben Jonson (1572-1637), one of the most important poets and playwrights of the English Renaissance.  This poem--originally entitled "A Hymne on the Nativitie of My Saviour"--was included by Jonson in a proposed collection of verse entitled Under-wood (the title being a sequel to an earlier collection, The Forrest, published in 1616).  The collection was arranged but left to languish until Jonson's death; it was first published in the posthumous Works of 1640-1641, edited by Jonson's friend Sir Kenelm Digby.  

For my setting, I replaced the title with the first line of the poem, as is common for hymns.  I have left the spelling unmodernized, in true 17th-century style.  Perhaps I might prepare a modernized version in the future.


Ben Jonson: I Sing the Birth Was Borne to Night by Brandon P. Otto on Scribd

Scribd link to the document embedded above: here.

Internet Archive mirror: https://archive.org/details/i-sing-the-birth-was-borne-to-night


Source: Ben Jonson, "A Hymne on the Nativitie of My Saviour," in The Complete Poetry of Ben Jonson, ed. Willliam B. Hunter, Jr. (New York: Norton, 1968), 120-121.

Melody ©2023 Brandon P. Otto.  Licensed via CC BY-NC.  Feel free to redistribute non-commercially, as long as credit is given to the composer.

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