The melody which became known as Divinum mysterium was a Sanctus trope. A trope was a musical enbellishment to a pre-existing chant – a practice that arose in monasteries in the 800’s. An early version of the melody appears in manuscript form as early as the 10th century. Later versions appear in manuscripts dating throughout the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Divinum mysterium first appears in printed form in the Finnish song book Piae Cantiones (1582), a collection of seventy-four sacred and secular songs.

Of the Father’s Love Begotten began as a Latin Christian poem Corde natus ex parentis by the Roman poet Aurelius Prudentius (c.308-405). Two Englishman were responsible for the merging of the melody with the ancient poem. Thomas Helmore (1811-1890) was an Anglican priest and the Master of Choristers of the Chapel Royal who had a keen interest in Medieval plainsong and its adaption in worship. His friend John Mason Neale (1818–1866), another ordained Anglican priest, scholar of medieval texts, and hymnwriter, came across a copy of Piae Cantiones and passed it on to Helmore. Helmore joined the melody of Divinum Mysterium to a translation by Neale of the original Prudentius poem and a classic English hymn was born.

Helmore changed the original triple meter of the melody into a duple meter. Later, Charles Winfred Douglas (1867-1944) modified it into a chant-like melody, which is used in this arrangement.

I set both English and Latin texts.

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