'O Magnum Mysterium' lyrics

'O Magnum Mysterium' is a festive Gregorian chant about the nativity, and composers throughout history have set it to music

Two famous musical settings of the festive 'O Magnum Mysterium' are Tomás Luis de Victoria's 16th century version and Poulenc's 20th century version

Did 16th-century Spaniard Tomás Luis de Victoria study under the great Palestrina? While we can’t be sure, the fluid counterpoint of his 1572 motet O Magnum Mysterium, which sets a Matins chant telling of the wonder of the sight of the newborn Christ, is worthy of the Italian master himself. As one of the more generally joyful composers of the Renaissance, it’s no surprise to hear Victoria’s Christmas motet finish with a rousingly florid and affirmative ‘Alleluia!’.

Of Poulenc’s four Christmas motets, the first is the most solemn, the most haunting and has consistently proved the most popular since they were published in 1952. Poulenc’s lapsed faith was famously re-ignited following the death of his friend Pierre-Octave Ferroud in 1936 – with its evocative twists and turns of dark harmony, few works can match the troubling O Magnum Mysterium in displaying the sheer depth of a composer’s belief.