Laudate Nomen Domini Top Pick

Composer
Difficulty
Moderately Easy radio_button_checked radio_button_checked radio_button_unchecked radio_button_unchecked radio_button_unchecked
Voicing(s)
Instrumental Only?
No
Description

Two Versions - You know it! You love it! BOTH SATB Choir and an SAB arrangement for smaller forces. This is a classic! Use anytime of year.
The musical source for this well-known piece is Tye’s 1553 publication The Actes of the Apostles, a rendering of that New Testament book in metrical verse together with a musical setting for each chapter. The music for ‘Laudate nomen’ is the setting for Chapter 4 in Tye’s version; however, the Latin text with which the music is now generally associated is a later anonymous contrafactum, or substitute text, being a paraphrase of the first verse of Psalm 112; an English translation of this, beginning ‘O come, ye servants of the Lord’, is also frequently encountered.

The recording is of the SAB version. If you would like the SATB recording (original) it is in the EXTRAS (ZIP) file.

Audio
Lyrics

Laudate nomen Domini, vos servi Domini;
ab ortu solis usque ad occasum ejus.
Decreta Dei justa sunt, et cor exhilarant:
laudate Deum principes et omnes populi.

Translation:
Praise the name of the Lord, you servants of the Lord;
from the rising of the sun until the same setting.
The decrees of the Lord are just, and [their] heart is glad:
Praise the Lord you princes and all you people.

English version:
O praise the name of God on high,
Ye servants of the Lord;
From morning till the setting sun,
Be everywhere adored.
The laws of God make glad my heart,
he makes his mercies known;
All kings and nations now bow down
To kneel before his throne.