Holst: 3 Carols, H.133 II “Personent Hodie" (On this day earth shall ring) - wind quintet
Personent hodie" is a Christmas carol originally published in the 1582 Finnish song book Piae Cantiones, a volume of 74 Medieval songs with Latin texts collected by Jaakko Suomalainen, a Swedish Lutheran cleric, and published by T.P. Rutha.
The song book had its origins in the libraries of cathedral song schools, whose repertory had strong links with medieval Prague, where clerical students from Finland and Sweden had studied for generations. A melody found in a 1360 manuscript from the nearby Bavarian city of Moosburg in Germany is highly similar, and it is from this manuscript that the song is usually dated.
The carol became more prominent in England after being arranged for unison voices and orchestra in 1916 by Gustav Holst (1874–1934), where in its organ reduction it is often used as a processional hymn in church and cathedral services.
Holst's version often forms part of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, and was last featured in the service broadcast by BBC2 from King's College Chapel, Cambridge in 2011 following the sixth lesson.
This arrangement is sometimes referred to as "Theodoric" in reference to the composer's middle name (Theodore).
often referred to as "on this day Earth shall ring"
My arrangement for wind quintet is based on Gustav Holst's version
it is arranged as the 1st movement in Robert Smith's Holst Winter Suite.
