Veni, Veni Emanuel (O Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel) from Family Christmas OnlineTMThis may be the oldest carol in our collection. The words were written in the 12th century possibly pulling together texts from older sources. The tune we are used to is probably French and was used at least once for a fifteenth-century funeral hymn.The English lyrics we use most often are an updated version of John Mason Neal's 1851 translation. Emanuel means "God with us;" it's one of the titles of Jesus, whom the Bible says came to bring us into fellowship with the Father. Many of the lines of this carol include references to Old Testmant prophecies of the Messiah; for example, He would descend from Jesse and hold the authority of David. Because the narrator of the lyrics seems to be looking forward, not backwards toward the coming of the Messiah, this is song is often used during Advent, the four-week period in which members of liturgical churches are told to prepare their hearts for Christmas. Note: Like many hymns we use today, this carol has many more verses that are contained in most hymnal. In such cases, I try to collect the verses that most hymnals contain in the versions that most people are used to singing. Following the example of hymn-collectors through the ages, I usually leave out the other three to five verses that would just confuse people. In some cases, Latin hymnals tend to include a different subset of verses; after all, some verses that are completely unsingable when translated into English are the best part of the original. On this page, you'll notice that the Latin version is "missing" some verses the appear in the English version and has at least one verse that isn't represented in English on this page. If we have left out your favorite verse, Latin, or English, please let us know and we'll take another look. To hear an MP3 file of the song click here. To download the melody only sheet music for this song in pdf format, click here To download the SATB sheet music for this song in pdf format, click here Latin Text: Veni, veni Emmanuel,
Refrain:
Veni, o Jesse Virgula;
Refrain Veni, veni, o Oriens
Refrain Veni clavis Davidica;
Refrain Veni, veni Adonai,
Refrain
English Text: O come, O come, Emmanuel,
Refrain:
O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Refrain O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Refrain O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Refrain O come, Thou Key of David, come,
Refrain O come, Desire of nations, bind
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