Bethlehem of Noblest Cities (Stuttgart)

An organ chorale prelude on the Epiphany hymn “Bethlehem of Noblest Cities.“ (Also known as “Earth has many a Noble City“) The origin of the words is as follows. In 405 AD Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, a successful 57-year-old Roman lawyer, two-time provincial governor, and member of the court of the emperor Theodosius I, decided to consecrated the remainder of his life to writing Christian poetry. One of the works he compiled that year was Liber Cathemerinon (literally, “book of daily things“ - perhaps best translated as “Hymns for the Christian Day“), a book of 12 long poems, each one for a particular event or time. The last of these poems is the wide-ranging 52 stanza “Hymn for the Epiphany“. Eleven and a half centuries later, in 1568, five stanzas of this were used to create the hymn O sola magnarum urbium for Lauds on Epiphany. (Lauds are the first prayers and praises at sunrise.) In 1851 the noted English translator Edward Caswall (1814-1878) published his translation of O sola magnarum urbium as “Bethlehem of Noblest Cities“. The tune, known as Stuttgart, is by Christian Friedrich Witt (1660-1716), who was well known in his day as a composer and as the compiler of one of the best hymnals of the late Baroque. Edward Caswall’s English translation is: 1. Bethlehem, of noblest cities None can once with thee compare; Thou alone the Lord from heaven Didst for us Incarnate bear. 2. Fairer than the sun at morning Was the star that told his birth; To the lands their God announcing, Hid beneath a form of earth. 3. By its lambent beauty guided, See, the Eastern Kings appear; See them bend, their gifts to offer,— Gifts of incense, gold, and myrrh. 4. Offerings of mystick meaning!— Incense doth the God disclose; Gold a Royal child proclaimeth; Myrrh a future tomb foreshows. 5. Holy Jesu! in thy brightness To the Gentile world display’d! With the Father, and the Spirit, Endless praise to Thee be paid. The well known Christmas hymn “Of the Father’s Love Begotten“ (Corde Natus ex Parentis) is also by Aurelius Clemens Prudentius and is from the ninth poem of Liber Cathermerinon. More music by Martin Gaskell can be found at: