SUPER FLUMINA BABYLONIS
Super flumina Babylonis, Illic sedimus, et flevimus dum recordaremur tui Sion. Illic interrogaverunt nos, qui captivos abduxerunt nos, verba cantionum.
Quomodo cantabimus canticum Domini in terra aliena? In salicibus in medio eius, suspendimus organa nostra.
QUOMODO CANTABIMUS
Quomodo cantabimus canticum Domini in terra aliena?
Si oblitus fuero tui, Jerusalem, oblivioni detur dextra mea.
Adhaereat lingua mea faucibus meis, si non meminero tui.
Si non proposuero Jerusalem in principio laetitiae meae.
Memor esto Domine, filiorum Edom in die Jerusalem.
By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered thee, O Zion. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song. How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? We hanged up our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.
If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.
Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem.
It's almost impossible to get into the mindset of the psalmist. Psalm 136, perhaps the bleakest, speaks of exile, injustice, loss, nostalgia, despair and revenge.
"By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept: when we remembered thee, O sion. As for our harps, we hanged them up: upon the trees that are therein. For they that led us away captive required of us a song: Sing us one of the songs of Sion."
It's not hard to see what Philip De Monte had in mind when he sent a suitably austere setting of these verses to England's foremost musician in 1583. William Byrd was Catholic. The polyphonic splendour of his youth had been desecrated by the reformation, yet Queen Elizabeth's court - for she herself was too wise to succumb to the worst excesses of musical iconoclasm - required of Mr Byrd many songs.
"That time of year thou may'st in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang."
Shakespeare's implication
How shall we sing the Lord's song : in a strange land?
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem : let my right hand forget her cunning.If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth : yea, if I prefer not Jerusalem in my mirth.
Remember the children of Edom, O Lord, in the day of Jerusalem : how they said, Down with it, down with it, even to the ground.
O daughter of Babylon, wasted with misery : yea, happy shall he be that rewardeth thee, as thou hast served us.
Blessed shall he be that taketh thy children : and throweth them against the stones.
The feelings of Byrd and his fellow English Catholics at their suppression during the reign of Elizabeth are well illustrated by a remarkable exchange between Byrd and the Fleming, Philippe de Monte (1521-1603), who had come to England in 1554 as a member of Philip’s Chapel. In 1583 he sent Byrd a double-choir motet setting of the first four verses of the Psalm Super flumina Babylonis, with the order of the verses rearranged to end with the second: “We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof ”. William
Byrd’s reply was an eight-voice setting, Quomodo cantabimus, of verses 4 - 7, a defiant response in the face of persecution, emphasising his determination not to forget Jerusalem (= Rome): “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem”. Byrd cunningly interweaves a canon à 3 (one voice in inversion) with supreme fluency into this heartfelt and extended lyrical utterance.
The creations of genius are often the outcome of trial and tribulation, of suffering, or inspired by momentous events, by the passing of the great and mighty into Eternity. It is their ultimate triumph that they transcend the more earthly concerns of their times and states, reaching us as lasting testaments to the greater glory of God.
© Copyright Martyn Imrie 2001 The Flowering of Genius. Translations into French and German are available from coro@thesixteen.org.uk
