Cantemus cuncti melodum nunc

The Latin Sequence "Cantemus cuncti melodum nunc, Alleluia" frequently referred to as the Alleluiatic Sequence, is one of the most celebrated liturgical compositions surviving from the early medieval period. Modeled textually on the universal call to praise found in the 148th Psalm, the hymn serves as a comprehensive visual and sonic tapestry of creation uniting to sing the praises of God.

Origin and Authorship Dispute

The earliest comprehensive descriptive account of the sequence is found in a manuscript collection compiled in 1507 by Father Joachim Brander, a monk of the Abbey of St. Gall. Brander recorded the text with the specific liturgical rubric: Alia de Epiphania. Christi Sequentia jocunda b. Notkeri, titulis Puella turbata. Canitur praecipue in Octava Epiphaniae. This notes the piece as a joyful Epiphany sequence composed by Blessed Notker Balbulus (who died in 912) and indicates that it was sung primarily within the octave of the Epiphany.

The enigmatic musical title Puella turbata (the troubled or disturbed virgin) has invited diverse interpretations among text historians. The prevailing consensus identifies the title as a scriptural allusion to Jerusalem, traditionally personified as the virgin daughter of Zion, and her recorded agitation in St. Matthew 2:3 upon hearing of the arrival of the Magi, an event central to the Epiphany season.

Nineteenth-century scholarship introduced a prominent debate regarding the authorship of the text. In his Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences (1863), Dr. John Mason Neale disputed the traditional attribution, claiming instead that the piece was composed by Godescalcus for the symbolic "Deposition of Alleluia" prior to the solemn season of Septuagesima. Modern hymnological authorities, including Mone, Franz Joseph Mone, Daniel, and Kehrein, have universally rejected Neale's theory. Finding no substantive manuscript evidence to support an attribution to Godescalcus, they affirm Brander's original record and assign the authorship strictly to Notker.

Manuscript Sources and Textual Variants

The sequence is heavily documented across early European liturgical manuscripts. The oldest verified transcripts date back to the eleventh century. These include an important text preserved in the British Museum (Harl. 2961, folio 234b) and three distinct eleventh-century codices held in the library of St. Gall (Manuscripts 376, 380, and 381). The critical text has been published with comprehensive manuscript readings in Mone's Lateinische Hymnen des Mittelalters (Number 67), Hermann Adalbert Daniel's Thesaurus Hymnologicus (Volume II, page 52), and Joseph Kehrein's Lateinische Sequenzen (Number 44).

The most striking textual discrepancy among these ancient sources occurs in the concluding lines:

• The Mone Recension: Closes with the rhythmic repetition: "Laus Trinitati aeternae, All., All., All., All., All., All."

• The Daniel and Kehrein Recension: Features an explicit Christological declaration linking the text to Christ's baptism: "Laus Trinitati aeternae in baptismo domini quae clarificatur: Hinc canamus: Alleluia."

English Translations and Musical Controversies

The sequence was introduced to the English-speaking world through three principal nineteenth-century translations, though one version achieved an overwhelming monopoly in congregational use.

The definitive English translation, "The strain upraise of joy and praise, Alleluia," was executed by John Mason Neale. It was first published in the enlarged edition of the Hymnal Noted (1854) and later reprinted in his Mediaeval Hymns (Second Edition, 1863). The translation was rapidly adopted into nearly every major hymnal across the British Empire and America.

Neale wrote with bitter frustration regarding the musical treatment his translation received from contemporary parish choirs. Every line and word of his English version had been meticulously constructed to match the irregular length of each individual troparion in the original medieval St. Gall melody. Instead of singing this native setting, English congregations almost universally forced the text onto a rigid, third-rate Anglican chant composed by Arthur Henry Dyke Troyte, known as Troyte’s Chant Number 2.

Neale argued that stretching his lines across this Procrustean bed of a meaningless, repetitive melody utterly spoiled the artistic design, remarking that even the Dies Irae would suffer less from such a substitution. Despite his protests and his publication of the original harmonies in the Hymnal Noted, the historic melody remained unadopted by the wider church. An altered version of Neale's text, appearing in The Hymnary (1872) under the first line "In sweet consent let all the anthem sing," represents a stylistic adaptation rather than an independent translation.

Two alternative translations were produced during the mid-Victorian era:

• 1869: "Let us all in concert sing" — Prepared by Dean Henry Alford. It was initially issued in a specialized festival service book and subsequently set to music in the first series of Joseph Barnby's Original Tunes to Popular Hymns, gaining moderate traction in American hymnals.

• 1871: "Let us all in chorus sing" — Authored by Robert Corbet Singleton in 1870 and published in the second edition of his Anglican Hymn Book.