Gregorian Chant
Western Christian liturgical tradition
Biography
VENI CREATOR SPIRITUS is a traditional Western plainchant melody rather than the work of a known individual composer. Its precise date and place of origin cannot be recovered. The tune appears with the Latin hymn in an eleventh-century English manuscript, the Portiforium of St. Wulfstan, copied in 1065–1066; its direction-only neumes show the same broad melodic identity but do not preserve exact pitches. Later manuscripts transmit more precise forms of the melody.
The chant is Mixolydian and was carried through the medieval office tradition with the Latin text. Many modern hymnals use a simplified form published in the 1848 Vesperale Romanum at Mechlin, while others print different plainsong editions or later harmonizations. Healey Willan's setting for The Book of Common Praise in 1938 is one influential arrangement, but it is not the original tune. Martin Luther also adapted the chant for his German Pentecost chorale KOMM, GOTT SCHÖPFER. These related settings should be distinguished from the anonymous medieval melody represented by the tune name VENI CREATOR SPIRITUS.
The chant is Mixolydian and was carried through the medieval office tradition with the Latin text. Many modern hymnals use a simplified form published in the 1848 Vesperale Romanum at Mechlin, while others print different plainsong editions or later harmonizations. Healey Willan's setting for The Book of Common Praise in 1938 is one influential arrangement, but it is not the original tune. Martin Luther also adapted the chant for his German Pentecost chorale KOMM, GOTT SCHÖPFER. These related settings should be distinguished from the anonymous medieval melody represented by the tune name VENI CREATOR SPIRITUS.
Hymns by Gregorian Chant
Come, Holy Ghost, Our Souls Inspire
Role: Composer