Alleluya, dulce carmen

Alleluya, dulce carmen. Latin, perhaps 11th century. This hymn was dated by Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus IV. 261-2, as 11th century. Daniel assigned it to the Saturday before Septuagesima Sunday. Milfull (Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church, Cambridge, 1996, p. 226) says that it was for Vespers, but in one version for Compline. It appears in Analecta Hymnica 51. 52-3 (no 53). AH 2. 41 prints a version from the Moissac Breviary. Verse 2 line 3, ‘Exules nos flere cogunt Babylonis flumina’, is strongly reminiscent of Psalm 137: 1. The hymn is connected with the liturgical custom of not singing ‘Alleluia’ after Septuagesima Sunday, in preparation for Lent. At some time in the Middle Ages this...