O Come O Come Emmanuel / Veni Emmanuel

[ Roud 26895 ; Ballad Index CJ013 ; anon.]

The Watersons sang Emmanuel accompanied by Gabriel’s Horns in 1977 on their album Sound, Sound Your Instruments of Joy. This recording was also included on the 1990 CD reissue of Frost and Fire, in 2003 on the Watersons’ The Definitive Collection, and in 2004 on the Watersons’ 4 CD anthology Mighty River of Song. A live version from a Christmas radio programme recorded in December 1980 at Crathorne Hall, Crathorne, North Yorkshire, was published in 2005 on the CD A Yorkshire Christmas and was included in 2006 on the Free Reed anthology Midwinter. A.L. Lloyd noted on the original album:

Smashing tune, baffling words. A bit before the ninth century a set of antiphons used to be sung for the week before Christmas. About the thirteenth century an anonymous author made a Latin metrical hymn out of five of these antiphons, and this hymn was translated by J.M. Neale (1818-66), the author of Good King Wenceslas. Most modern hymnbooks prefer the later translation by T.A. Lacey but the Methodist Hymnbook and the Salvation Army stick to Neale, and it’s his words—more or less—that the Watersons offer here. The tune, first printed in 1856, is credited as “adapted by T. Helmore from a French missal in the National Library, Lisbon”. No-one has been able to find it there. Quite likely it’s a mock-medieval confection of Victorian times. But a good ’un.

GreenMatthews sang O Come O Come Emmanuel on their 2012 album A Medieval Christmas.

A Winter Union sang O Come, O Come Emmanuel in 2016 on their eponymous first album, A Winter Union.

Joglaresa sang Veni Emmanuel on their 2017 album Sing We Yule. They noted:

This well-known Advent hymn has obscure origins. The version we recognise today was published in Cologne in 1710 and the melody has been discovered to be a 15^th century processional. Some sources also give it an 8^th century origin, but these are not particularly clear, and some academics date it to the 13^th century.

Megson sang O Come O Come Emmanuel in 2019 on their EDJ album A Yuletide Carol.

John Kirkpatrick sang Emmanuel in 2022 on his Fledg’ling album Joy & Jubilation. He noted:

The original set of mediaeval French ‘antiphons’, sung in the days leading up to Christmas, were translated into English from the Thirteenth Century Latin by Rev. J.M. Neale in 1851. Neale’s words are full of fabulously obscure references, impenetrable to any but the most ardent Biblical scholar. Even though the text was adapted by T.A. Lacey for the English Hymnal in 1906, and included in The New Oxford Book of Carols in 1992, the notes of explanation are still much longer than the song itself. I’ve tried to round off the scholarly edges to make a set of words that is easier to follow, and above all, fun to sing.

The Jackie Oates Trio sang O Come, O Come, Emmanuel on their 2023 download Christmas Album and she and John Spiers sang it on their 2024 album A Midwinter’s Night. They noted:

A hymn traditionally sung in late advent, translated from Latin into English in 1861, in Hymns Ancient and Modern. The text was matched by Thomas Helmore, with the French 15^th-century tune Veni Emmanuel. With its roots in 8^th or 9^th century monastic life, the theme of the hymn relates to the call and response type chanting, in which each ‘O Antiphon’ is summoned in the seven days leading to Christmas Eve, when the final antiphon is summoned.

Lyrics

The Watersons sing Emmanuel

O come, O come Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
Who mourns in lonely exile here
Until the son of God does appear

Chorus (after each verse):
Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel

O come, you son of David, come
And lead us to our heavenly home
Make safe the path that leads on high
And bar the way to misery

O come, O come, you God of might
Who to your tribes on ancient Sinai’s heights
In olden times did give the law
In crown and majesty and awe

GreenMatthews sing O come O come Emmanuel

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here,
Until the Son of God appear.

Chorus (after each verse):
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory o’er the grave.

O come, O come, thou Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai’s height,
In ancient times didst give the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.

Joglaresa sing Veni Emmanuel

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Chorus (after each verse):
Rejoice! Rejoice! O Israel,
To thee shall come Emmanuel!

O come, Dayspring from on high,
And cheer us by thy drawing nigh;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadow put to flight.

O come, Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home,
Make safe the way that leads on high,
That we no more have cause to sigh.

O come, O come, Thou Lord of might,
Who to thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times did give the law,
In cloud, and majesty, and awe.

Acknowledgements

Transcribed from the singing of the Watersons by Garry Gillard.