The long-standing appeal of the Fulget dies refrain in twelfth- and thirteenth-century hymns, through the Counter-Reformation, and into nineteenth-century Catholic hymnals is linked to its association with liturgical time and relationship with multiple feasts, seasons, offices, and chants. The Fulget dies refrain originated sometime in the twelfth century within a family of contrafact tropes on Benedicamus Domino, each related to a different feast. By 1220, the refrain was found in hymns as well, as illustrated by its appearance in at least five hymns found in the Worcester Antiphonal. By 1300, the refrain had made its way to Hungary, Spain, Norman Sicily, France, and England. While Fulget dies appears in a variety of musical and liturgical contexts, it generally functions as a marker of festivity. Even after many office and mass tropes fell out of favor, Fulget dies lived on as a refrain in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century hymnals. The Feast of Corpus Christi hymn O salutaris hostia and the Marian hymn Matrem per integerrimam illustrate its continued association with important feasts and the ways in which the text and melody of Fulget dies gradually changed over time. In sources from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the refrain was transmitted only in ordinals which did not contain notated music, just text. Here, Fulget dies became primarily associated with the Christmas season. Two sources, the thirteenth-century Worcester Antiphonal and a sixteenth-century Hungarian ordinal, document the erasure of the Fulget dies refrain from hymn transmission. Through the sixteenth century, Fulget dies had a degree of stability attached to three Christmas hymns, most often to Fit porta Christi pervia, with both the text and music demonstrating a high degree of similarity. Accounting for its longevity as a refrain, the text of Fulget dies (the day shines forth . . . this day shines forth) exhibits both poetic brevity and flexibility to engage with any number of theological cycles from daily rituals to the cycles of seasons.

Works: Anonymous: Iam lucis orto sidere (91-97, 114-16, 120-23, 138, 141-42), A solis ortus cardine (107-11, 120, 126-27, 133-25, 142), Nunc sancta nobis spiritus (107-11), O salutaris hostia (117-20, 125), Matrem per integerrimam (117-20), Ordinarius Stringoniensis (122), Deus tuorum militum (125-26), Enixa est puerpera (126-32), Fit porta Christi pervia (126-32), Venez vos gens chantez Noé (132); Willaert: Enixa est puerpera (131-32), Fit porta Christi pervia (131-32, 142-43); Orlando di Lasso: Enixa est puerpera (131-32), Fit porta Christi pervia (131-32)

Sources: Anonymous: Fulget dies from tropes on Benedicamus Domino (91-144), A solis ortus cardine (126)

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300, 1400s, 1500s, 1600s, 1700s, 1800s

Contributed by: Matthew Van Vleet