Sing we the praises of the great forerunner

Sing we the praises of the great forerunner. Latin, perhaps by Paul the Deacon* (ca. 730- ca. 799), translated by C.S. Phillips* (1883-1949). The Latin hymn, ‘Ut queant laxis’*, was in thirteen stanzas with a doxology. It was the principal hymn for St John the Baptist’s day in the medieval breviaries, when it was divided into three parts, for the different services (see Milfull, 1996): Ut queant laxis resonare fibris Antra deserti teneris sub annis O nimis felix meritisque celse Phillips made a translation of the first two parts for The Plainsong Hymnbook (1932). Three stanzas were used in A&MR. They were stanzas 1 and 2 from Part I, and stanza 3 from Part II, asterisked below. The full...