This setting of the Latin vesper Lucis Creator Optime (ca. A.D. 550) was written out of a fondness for the poetic mastery of an otherwise humble text: an evening prayer exalting the Divine while requesting protection from all evil thoughts and things that come with the descent of night. The dense, murmuring soundscape that recurs through the work seeks to evoke reverence and mystery; longing and supplication; light and creation.
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Lucis creator optime
Lucem dierum proferens,
Primordiis lucis novæ
Mundi parans originem,
Qui mane iunctum vesperi
Diem vocari præcipis:
Tetrum chaos illabitur,
Audi preces cum fletibus,
Ne mens gravata crimine,
Vitae sit exsul munere,
Dum nil perenne cogitat,
Seseque culpis illigat;
Cæleste pulset ostium,
Vitale tollat præmium,
Vitemus omne noxium,
Purgemus omne pessimum.
Præsta, Pater piissime,
Patrique compar Unice,
Cum Spiritu Paraclito
Regnans per omne sæculum. Amen.
– Attributed to St. Gregory (540 – 604)
O blest Creator of the light,
Who mak’st the day with radiance bright,
And o’er the forming world didst call
The light from chaos first of all.
Whose wisdom joined in meet array
The morn and eve, and named them day:
Night comes with all its darkling fears;
Regard Thy people’s prayers and tears.
Lest, sunk in sin, and whelmed with strife,
They lose the gift of endless life;
While thinking but the thoughts of time,
They weave new chains of woe and crime.
But grant them grace that they may strain
The heavenly gate and prize to gain:
Each harmful lure aside to cast,
And purge away each error past.
O Father, that we ask be done,
Through Jesus Christ, Thine only Son;
Who, with the Holy Ghost and Thee,
Doth live and reign eternally.
– Translated by John M. Neale (1818 – 1866)
