O Light from Light
(O nata lux)
by
Thomas Tallis
SATB with Organ Accompaniment
Christmastide; Candlemas; Epiphany; Transfiguration; Lent
Many include O nata lux by Thomas Tallis (c1505–1585) among the finest of Tudor anthems,
and I agree. It is haunting, ravishing, numinous. What is its key, we wonder. Is it g minor (Bflats) or G major (B-naturals)? If minor, is its mode Aeolian (E-flats) or Dorian (E-naturals)? And
then in measure 6, our ear winces as E-flat and E-natural occur simultaneously! Is the dominant
key D-major (C-sharps) or D-minor (C-naturals)? And then in measure 23 C-sharp and C-natural
occur simultaneously, and we wince again.
The concluding eight measures (then repeated) commence in what seems to be the evocative
Phrygian mode—rather like The Third Tune by Tallis, known in many hymnals as the music for
"I heard the voice of Jesus say," and made famous in the orchestral Fantasia on a Theme by
Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Then the final two measures bring a straightforward
cadence: from the dominant, D-major, to the tonic, G-major (F sharps). All might have been
satisfactorily concluded in this way. But in the first of those final two measures Tallis retains a
Phrygian F-natural in the tenor that first clashes against the sopranos' simultaneous G and then
contradicts the sopranos' simultaneous F-sharp, and he retains a Phrygian E-flat in the tenor that
clashes against the basses' simultaneous D.
At these points, known as "cross relations," attention to the anthem's text reveals that the
harmonic discords accompany the words redemptor (redeemer), perditis (the lost), and corporis
(Christ's body). By means of musical dissonance Tallis paints the suffering implied by each of
these cardinal words of redemptive theology.
The anthem is filled with cross rhythms and cross accents as well as cross relations, giving the
music a fluidity uncommon in homophonic chordal structure.
I have long been saddened that O nata lux is simply too demanding for parish choirs in which I
have sung. Cross rhythms and cross accents are the first difficulty. Clarifying the cross relations
are a second. These difficulties are compounded by the anthem's setting for five-part choir,
SATTB. Many parish choirs can ill afford to split their tenor section. A cappella tuning of Tallis's
rich and close harmonies is a daunting prospect. And then there's the Latin.
With this arrangement I have hoped to make this deeply affecting anthem more widely available
to worship services. I have adapted the five vocal parts to SATB, and have assigned to an organ
accompaniment Tallis's five-part harmonies in their fullness.
Tallis took his text for O nata lux from an anonymous hymn of the 10th century. The English
translation here is mine. The setting preserves cross relations, cross rhythms, and cross accents of
the original, and I hope that they may become a challenge for parish choirs that might earlier have
found them an impossibility.
Albert Blackwell
February 10, 2012
O Light from Light
(O nata lux)
O nata lux de lumine,
O Light from Light, resplendent birth,
Jesu redemptor saeculi,
Jesus redeemer of the earth,
dignare clemens supplicum
in mercy grant us this reprieve:
laudes preces que sumere.
our prayers and praises to receive.
Qui carne quondam contegi
Thou who in flesh didst once appear
dignatus es pro perditis.
to set souls free from sin and fear:
Nos membra confer effici,
gather us all, O Lord we plea,
tui beati corporis.
in thy blest Body, one with thee.
O Light from Light
(O nata lux)
10th century Latin hymn
tr. Albert Blackwell
b
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Free Anthems for Church Choirs, © 2012 by Albert Blackwell,
is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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Thomas Tallis (c1505–1585)
arr. Albert Blackwell
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