Another Ancient Chant: O Gladsome Light

O GLADSOME LIGHT

O gladsome light, O grace
of God the Father's face,
the eternal splendor wearing;
celestial, holy, blest,
our Savior Jesus Christ,
joyful in thine appearing.

Now, ere day falleth quite,
we see the evening light,
our wonted hymn outpouring;
Father of might unknown,
thee, his incarnate Son,
and Holy Spirit adoring.

To thee of right belongs
all praise of holy songs,
O Son of God, Life-giver;
thee, therefore, O Most High,
the world doth glorify,
and shall exalt for ever.

- Anonymous, “O Gladsome Light,” Third Century (possibly earlier),
translated from the Greek by  Robert Bridges, 1899

Photo of window in the Parish Church of Solesmes, France

Post originally from October 29, 2005:

About "O Gladsome Light" and Early Christian Chant:

This chant is one of the earliest known Christian hymns whose words are still sung by Christians today, other than those whose words are taken from the Bible.  The author and the time and place of origin are unknown.   

Its roots go back to an ancient Jewish custom of lighting candles at sunset, which is the beginning of the Jewish day.  Exodus 30:8 speaks of Aaron lighting the lamps at even and burning incense upon it before the Lord.  Leviticus 24:1-4 also mentions lamps upon a candlestick burning from the evening unto the morning before the Lord continually.

The use of hymns in Christian worship is documented in the New Testament at Col. 3:16 and Eph. 5:19.  This probably followed Jewish practice, described by Philo of Alexandria as including hymns in rhythms and tunes solemn enough for sacred music (Henry Chadwick, The Early Church, pg. 273).  The choirs included men and women, and the chants were sometimes sung in harmony or antiphonally (Chadwick, pp. 273-274). 

In the middle of the second century, Justin Martyr is said to have written a book called Psaltes.  In his notes on the Justin Martyr’s First and Second Apologies (Ancient Christian Writers series by Paulist Press), Leslie William Barnard suggests that this was possibly a collection of hymns that no longer exists (Barnard, Notes to Justin Martyr, pg. 116, note 75).  Barnard mentions, in particular, "The Gloria" (see post below) and "O Gladsome Light" ("Phos Hilaron") as the Greek morning and evening hymns. 

In Justin’s First Apology, he wrote that Christians were taught to give thanks to the Creator “in hymns and speech.” (First Apology, para. 13).  Second century pagan critic Celsus wrote that the Christian chants were so beautiful that he resented their effect (Chadwick, pg. 274).

“O Gladsome Light” is included in the Liturgy of St. Basil, which is substantially an authentic fourth century work.  (Richard Travers Smith, St. Basil the Great, pg. 47, 80-81)  In his Letter No. cvii, Basil disputed accusations that he varied church music from older custom.  In that letter, Basil offered the following description of fourth century chant:

"Among us the people go at night to the house of prayer, and, in distress, affliction, and continual tears, making confession to God, at last rise from their prayers and begin to sing psalms. And now, divided into two parts, they sing antiphonally with one another, thus at once confirming their study of the Gospels, and at the same time producing for themselves a heedful temper and a heart free from distraction. Afterwards they again commit the prelude of the strain to one, and the rest take it up; and so after passing the night in various psalmody, praying at intervals as the day begins to dawn, all together, as with one voice and one heart, raise the psalm of confession to the Lord, each forming for himself his own expressions of penitence."

Basil’s letter suggests that “O Gladsome Light” was sung antiphonally in the fourth century, and that it was already ancient in his day.  It is still sung in Orthodox churches as a regular part of each vespers service.    

The words echo both the creation narrative of Genesis 1 and the Prologue to John's Gospel.  At  the same time, they are indicative of the meaning of evening vespers as passed down through the centuries in the Orthodox Church.  Following Isaiah 60:20 and Rev. 21:25, “Christ is praised as the Light which illumines man's darkness, the Light of the world and of the Kingdom of God which shall have no evening.” (Orthodox Church in America, “Rainbow Serieson the Orthodox Faith,” Orthodox Church in America website ).

The struggle between light and darkness reflected in John's Gospel is seen in the spiritual sense of Paul's struggle between his will to walk in the "light" of God's law and his inability to do so.  The vespers service expresses this internal struggle with disobedience to God, and the hope of Christ's victory over the darkness of sin as He is the light shining in the darkness.

The vespers service of Holy Saturday looks back to the Sabbath of Passover and includes the Divine Vigil of St. Basil the Great with "O Gladsome Light."  Later during the service, the priests change their vestments from the dark vestments of Holy Friday into the bright vestments of the resurrection.  The oldest Easter sermons date back to early Holy Saturday vesper services, and "O Gladsome Light" may have originated there.

In the tenth century, the beauty of the Eastern liturgy overwhelmed Kievan Russia’s Prince Vladimir and was a key reason for his choosing the Byzantine faith. (G.P. Fedotov, The Russian Religious Mind, pg. 51).  “O Gladsome Light” was carried into the Kievan church in the tenth century (Fedotov, pg. 53; Morosan, “Liturgical Singing,” from The Legacy of St. Vladimir, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, pg. 70). The chants were passed down until manuscripts were created in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Morosan, pp. 70-71).  Little change took place until the mid-seventeenth century, when harmonic part-singing was added to the Russian liturgy (Morosan, pg. 72).  The basic four-note Kiev chant is still sung and may, or may not, be quite similar to the original chant of the early church.

The words appear in classical music compositions of the Russian Orthodox vespers service by such composers as Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov.  For example, Rachmaninov based part of his complex twentieth century choral work on the four-note Kiev chant for “O Gladsome Light.”