> Maddy Prior > Songs > In Dulci Jubilo

In Dulci Jubilo

[German 14^th century, translated by R.L. Pearsall]

Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band sang In Dulci Jubilo in 1987 on their Saydisc album A Tapestry of Carols, and in a live recording from their December 1997 Christmas Tour that was released a year later on their Park CD Carols at Christmas.

The York Waits sang In Dulci Jubilo in 1992 on their Saydisc album Old Christmas Return’d.

The New Scorpion Band sang There Was a Pig / In Dulci Jubilo in 2001 on their CD The Carnal and the Crane. They noted:

A children’s song from Lancashire, from English County Songs, collected by Lucy Broadwood and J.A. Fuller-Maitland. Apparently a simple Christmas nursery rhyme, the repetitive words and hypnotic melody of There was a Pig give it a compelling quality, strangely evocative of a ritualistic past. We follow it with our village band rendition of the famous mediaeval German carol In Dulci Jubilo, whose words were said to have been sung by angels to the mystic Henry Suso.

Tim [Laycock] has provided his own seasonal words.

The Wilderness Yet played the tunes of In Dulci Jubilo and The Sussex Carol on their 2021 CD Turn the Year Round. They noted:

A couple of our favourite well-known carol tunes that work well as jigs! We all hail from Sussex in one way or another, so it was important to get this one in!

Lyrics

Maddy Prior sings In Dulci Jubilo

In dulci julibo, now sing with hearts aglow
Our delight and pleasure lies in praesepio
Like sunshine is our treasure matris in gremio.
    Alpha es et O,
    Alpha es et O

O Jesu parvule, for thee I long alway
Comfort my heart’s blindness, o puer optime
With all Thy loving kindness, o princeps gloriae
    Trahe me post te
    Trahe me post te

O Pareis caritas, o nati lenitas
Deeply were we stained, per nostra crimina;
But thou for us hast gained coelorom gaudia.
    O that we were there
    O that we were there

Ubi sunt gaudia, in any place but there
There are angels singing nova cantica
And there the bells are ringing in Regis curia:
    O that we were there
    O that we were there