From the Candlemas Procession (Feburary 2): Adorna thalamum
Adorna thalamum an antiphons used in the Candlemas Procession.
This version is by Orlande de Lassus, a Dutch composer of the late Renaissance, using polyphonic style of the Franco-Flemish school, and considered to be one of the three most famous and influential musicians in Europe at the end of the 16th century. He was born in 1532, Mons, Belgium and died in 1594, in Munich, Germany.
Latin words for the antiphon, along with a couple of variants, and an English translation for all three versions:
Adorna thalamum tuum, Sion, et suscipe Regem Christum:
amplectere Mariam, quae est coelestis porta:
[amplectere Messiam gratulare huiusce matri:]
ipsa enim portat Regem gloriae novi luminis.
Subsistit Virgo, adducens manibus Filium ante luciferum genitum:
quem accipiens Simeon in ulnas suas praedicavit populis
Dominum eum esse vitae et mortis et Salvatorem mundi
Adorn thy bridal chamber, O Sion, and receive Christ the King:
embrace Mary, who is the gate of heaven,
[embrace the Messiah and congratulate this mother}
who herself truly brings the glorious King of new light.
She remains a virgin, though bearing in her hands a Son begotten before the daystar,
whom Simeon, taking him in his arms, proclaimed to the people
to be the Lord of life and death, and Saviour of the world.
This page at the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913 describes the Candlemas Procession, and notes that St. John of Damascus wrote the text for this antiphon, which is "one of the few pieces which, text and music, have been borrowed by the Roman Church from the Greeks. The other antiphons are of Roman origin."
Edited from http://chantblog.blogspot.com/
Stained Glass from St. Michael's Cathedral in Toronto - Wikimedia Commons
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