By Jane Gardner By Jane Gardner,
presiding evangelist 

We sing from age to age during Advent as we chant, “Of the Father’s Love Begotten” (Community of Christ Sings 27). It is among a handful of ancient chants in our repertoire. 

It is an accumulation of centuries of Christian worship practices, beginning with a fourth-century poem, eventually chanted to a thirteenth-century tune, arranged for congregational singing and translated into English in the nineteenth century, and finally sung by us in the twenty-first century. 

By the time this hymn came to our hymnal, it had traveled an amazing journey through seventeen centuries and at least four countries: a Spanish poet, a tune from Italy, Latin translated by an Anglican, and a harmonization by an American Episcopal musician. 

Gregorian chant—better known as plainsong, plainchant, or evensong—still is used today by Benedictine monks in their everyday life. They chant on rising, five times during the day, and at bedtime. Originating with a cappella male voices, the chant uses haunting, contemplative melodic lines. 

Chant made a resurgence in the mid-1990s when a CD of chant made it to No. 1 on the classical-music charts and No. 42 on the pop-music charts. From there it rose to No. 13 and finally No. 3 on the pop-music charts. The CD titled Chant was a double-disc collection of chants by Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos.  

What gives chant such staying power? As Joseph McLellan mused in the Washington Post: “The popularity…is easy to explain. The monks sing beautifully…with fervor and a fine sense of style…I suspect that the acoustics of the monastery also help; there is a halo of reverberation around the voices that enhances the otherworldly effect.” More broadly, he wrote, “Gregorian chant is the ultimate feel-good music: slow-moving, never loud, seldom making a melodic leap of more than a couple of tones; it’s also intensely, ecstatically contemplative.” 

Greg Sandow wrote in Entertainment Weekly, “Maybe spirituality is what the new chant audience is looking for. Lots of people, it seems, are wearied by social problems that don’t seem to have any solution. Gregorian chants offer deeper, longer-lasting values… We all need something to bring back balance in our lives.” 

The author of “Of the Father’s Love Begotten,” Marcus Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, was a successful lawyer and judge. At 57 he felt unfulfilled and decided to retire and write poetry. He became quite successful. He has been called the earliest Christian writer who was a real poet. 

In this chant, Prudentius applied his legal skills to make a case for what has become an orthodox understanding of the Trinity. The original Latin title, “Corde Natus Ex Parentis,” also can be translated to “From the Heart of the Parent,” or “Born of the Parent’s Heart.” Originally, the poem had twelve verses, one for each hour of the day. Most hymnals today include only three or four stanzas. (See Wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_the_Father%27s_Heart_Begotten for the original poetry.) 

Here’s a suggestion for singing “Of the Father’s Love Begotten” as a congregation: 

Lowest voices begin with a hummed tonic (Eb). Sustain throughout.  Add all other voices on the melody for the first stanza. Lowest voices divide into hummed tonic (Eb) and fifth (Bb) and sustain throughout.  Add all other voices on the melody for the second and third stanzas. 

Notice the rise and fall of the musical phrases along with the freedom to increase and decrease the tempo to match the speaking rhythm of the text.  

We most often sing this chant during Advent, but it can serve many other purposes as a doxology, raising our voices in praise and thanksgiving along with centuries of Christians: “Evermore and Evermore! Amen.”