Link to the sheet music: https://tinyurl.com/almaredemptorismater

Happy New Year and welcome to one of our favorite musical Liturgical Seasons – ADVENT. It’s not just because Christmas is around the corner and we’re brushing up on our favorite Christmas chants and carols: there is beautiful music for Advent as well, full of yearning for the Incarnation and rejoicing in the “Yes” of our Blessed Mother.

When the calendar turns from Ordinary Time to Advent, the Marian Antiphon traditionally sung at compline changes from the Salve Regina to today’s chant: Alma Redemptoris Mater. Although it was originally sung as an “antiphon” that is: sung once, followed by a psalm set to a simple tone, and then sung again, it is now a sort of standalone piece: sung as the hymn at the end of Night Prayer during Advent. We urge you to sing this every day during Advent and Christmas!

As with the other Marian Antiphons, there is a simple tone, and a solemn tone. We’ll be teaching you the simple tone in this episode, but we’ll also release a separate episode where you can learn the solemn tone…it’s not too hard!

LATIN:

ALMA Redemptoris Mater, quae pervia caeli Porta manes, et stella maris, succurre cadenti, Surgere qui curat, populo: tu quae genuisti, Natura mirante, tuum sanctum Genitorem Virgo prius ac posterius, Gabrielis ab ore Sumens illud Ave, peccatorum miserere.

ENGLISH:

Kind mother of the Redeemer, who remain the open gate of heaven and the star of the sea: help your falling people who want to rise, you who bore your holy Creator, while nature marveled: a Virgin before and after, receiving that Ave from Gabriel's mouth, have mercy on us sinners.