Te Deum

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The Te Deum (also Te Deum laudamus, Ambrosian Hymn or A Song of the Church) is an Early Christian hymn of praise. The hymn remains in regular use by the Roman Catholic Church, in the Office of Readings found in the Liturgy of the Hours, and for special occasions such as the canonization of a saint.

In the traditional Roman Breviary, it is said at the end of Matins on all days when the Gloria is said at Mass: on all Sundays outside Advent, Septuagesima, Lent, and Passiontide; on all Feasts except Maundy Thursday and the Holy Innocents unless it should fall on Sunday; and on all Ferias during Eastertide. It is also used together with the standard canticles in Morning Prayer as prescribed in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, and is retained by many other churches of the Lutheran and Reformed traditions. It is also used by the Eastern Orthodox Churches in the Paraklesis (Moleben) of Thanksgiving.

[edit] Origin

Though its authorship is traditionally ascribed to Saints Ambrose and Augustine, on the occasion of the latter's baptism by the former in AD 387, contemporary scholars doubt this attribution, many assigning it to Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana in the late 4th to early 5th centuries.

Some scholars have suggested that the hymn is the merger of two (or more) earlier hymns: one to God the Father and another to God the Son. Under this schema, the second begins with the phrase Tu rex gloriae, Christe. The petitions at the end of the hymn (beginning Salvum fac populum tuum) are a selection of verses from the book of Psalms, appended subsequently to the original hymn.

The hymn follows the outline of the Apostles' Creed, mixing a poetic vision of the heavenly liturgy with its declaration of faith. Naming God immediately, the hymn proceeds to name all those who praise and venerate God, from the hierarchy of heavenly creatures to those Christian faithful already in heaven to the Church spread throughout the world. The hymn then returns to its credal formula, naming Christ and recalling his birth, suffering, and glorification. At this point the hymn turns to the subjects declaiming the praise, both the Church in general and the singer in particular, asking for mercy on past sins, protection from future sin, and the hoped-for reunification with the elect.

[edit] Music

Tonus Sollemnis - Gregorian Chant (help·info) Pontifical Mass - Gregorian Chant (help·info)

The text has been set to music by many classical composers, with settings by Bruckner, Berlioz, Dvořák, Haydn, and Mozart among the better-known. The prelude to Charpentier's setting (H.146 in Hugh Wiley Hitchcock's catalogue) is well-known in Europe on account of it being used as the theme music for some broadcasts of the European Broadcasting Union, most notably the Eurovision Song Contest. Sir William Walton's Coronation Te Deum was written for the coronation of HM Queen Elizabeth II in 1952.