Fauré: Cantique de Jean Racine (Choir of New College, Oxford)

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN THIS!




Performed by the Choir of New College, Oxford and conducted by Edward Higginbottom.
The text for this piece was written by the French tragedian Jean Racine (1639-1699).

Verbe, égal au Très-Haut, notre unique espérance,
Jour éternel de la terre et des cieux;
De la paisible nuit nous rompons le silence,
Divin Sauveur, jette sur nous les yeux!

Répands sur nous le feu de ta grâce puissante,
Que tout l'enfer fuie au son de ta voix;
Dissipe le sommeil d'une âme languissante,
Qui la conduit à l'oubli de tes lois!

O Christ, sois favorable à ce peuple fidèle
Pour te bénir maintenant rassemblé.
Reçois les chants qu'il offre à ta gloire immortelle,
Et de tes dons qu'il retourne comblé!

Word, equal to the Almighty, our only hope,
Eternal light of the earth and the Heavens;
We break the peaceful night's silence,
Divine Saviour, cast thine eyes upon us!

Spread the fire of thy mighty grace upon us.
May the entire hell flee at the sound of your voice;
Disperse from any slothful soul the drowsiness
Inducing it to forget your laws!

O Christ, look with favour upon this faithful people
Which has now gathered to bless you.
Receive its singing, offered to your immortal glory,
And may it leave with the gifts you have bestowed upon it.

Recordings can be found here:
http://www.newcollegechoir.com/discography-list.html

Category:

Music

Tags:

• fauré
• jean racine
• oxford
• choir
• edward higginbottom

[chapjenn1]

What choir is singing this? It's beautiful. This is my favorite choral piece of all time. It is beyond beautiful to me.

[aNGLICANcHOIR92]

@chapjenn1 Choir of New College, Oxford. It's one of my favorites, too.

[Davvanto]

Everyone must hear this melody at least once in his life..

[ChatonEndormi]

A little correction : the text of this piece was not written by the composer, but by the French tragedian Jean Racine (1639-1699), more than 150 years before Fauré was born.

It is a paraphrase of an older latin hymn. Racine is best known as a dramatist, but he was also a devotee, who wrote many religious works. His last plays have biblical subjects.

[ccbitikofer]

Our community chorus will be performing this. We will be using the organ accompaniment. Not being fluent in French, I appreciate having this video available. Gives one a wonderful sense of the dynamics and expressiveness possible.

[OliverDanielSJ]

This is singing at its best. Loved every moment of it.

[188basstrom]

@Ginnocently the original was for organ and choir. This arrangement for choir, string orchestra and harp is by John Rutter

[emncaity]

@chapjenn1

Did you know the words, or have you looked them up yet?

[emncaity]

@DubreuilMJ

Exactly why I'd like to have a recording of it played at my own funeral.

[SuperJBiebs]

Im in 9th grade and my choir is doing this for the spring concert. This piece of music is beautiful and its way to much for my class but we pull it off like it LOVE THIS SON

[DubreuilMJ]

I heard that song at my grand mother's funerals... and at that very moment, I stopped crying... it was like if I understood that my grand ma was in a better world and that i didn't had to worry about her... I just smiled and felt so good for those 5 minutes :)

[Ginnocently]

Beautiful version :-)

[asv8104]

The best version I heard so far

[TheRJSMusic]

This is so beautiful