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Crux Fidelis
(Good Friday chant)
See below for modern notation

Public domain

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Dynamics in the MP3 are probably not as they should be sung!


Notes: The music for the verses of Crux Fidelis is identical to the music for the refrains, so the MP3 file here has only the refrains; just play it over again if you want to hear it while singing the verses too. The order of the verses and refrains, in case it isn't obvious from the scores, is as follows.

(1) Sing the refrain "Crux fidelis," ending with "germine." (2) Sing the refrain "Dulce lignum." (3) Sing the three lines of verse 1. (4) Repeat the refrain "Crux fidelis." (5) Sing the three lines of verse 2. (6) Repeat the refrain "Dulce lignum." (7) Sing verse 3 followed by "Crux fidelis," and then verse 4 followed by "Dulce lignum"; repeat the procedure with each odd-numbered verse followed by "Crux fidelis" and each even-numbered verse followed by "Dulce lignum," until you get through verse 9 and the following "Crux fidelis," or until you're almost out of time near the end of the veneration of the Cross.

Do not omit verse 10. Skip any other verses after verse 1 if need be, but not verse 10. After verse 10--get this--you sing "Amen" before, not after, the final "Dulce lignum."


Translation (feel free to suggest a more elegant one, if you know of one):

Faithful Cross, the only noble tree among them all: no forest brings forth such leaves, such flowers, such fruit. Sweet wood, sweet nails, sweet burden borne! (1) Sing, my tongue, the crown of glorious battle, and speak of the noble triumph of the Cross: how the world's Redeemer conquered, being sacrificed. Faithful Cross (etc.) (2) Our Maker, showing pity for our first-formed parent's crime, when he fell into ruin through the harmful apple's bite, then marked this wood to remedy the wood-inflicted harm. Sweet wood (etc.) (3) Right order demanded this work of our salvation: art would cause the many-formed deceiver's art to fail; the medicine would be drawn from the enemy's deadly weapon. Faithful Cross (etc.) (4) Therefore, when there came the fullness of the holy time, the world's Creator was sent forth from the Father's lofty home and, born from the Virgin's womb, came forth endowed with flesh. Sweet wood (etc.) (5) The infant cries, hidden among the narrow mangers: the Virgin Mother wraps His limbs in cloth, and snugly clothes the hands and feet of God. Faithful Cross (etc.) (6) When six times five years are fulfilled, the Redeemer is delivered to His Passion of His own free will; the Lamb is raised up on the Cross, offered on the tree. Sweet wood (etc.) (7) See Him sicken from the bitter drink; the thorns, the nails, the spear pierce His gentle body, water and blood flow forth; the earth, the sea, the stars, the universe, all are cleansed by this flood! Faithful cross (etc.) (8) Bend your branches, O high tree; make soft your toughened heart; relax your native stiffness, and extend a tender bough to the most high King. Sweet wood (etc.) (9) You alone were worthy to carry this world's Victim, and to prepare a haven in the shipwreck of the world, anointed by the sacred blood poured forth from the body of the Lamb. Faithful Cross (etc.) (10) Everlasting glory be to the Blessed Trinity: equal glory to the Father and the Son, equal honor to the Paraclete: let all the universe praise the name of the One and of the Three. Amen. Sweet wood (etc.)


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