Talk:Ave verum corpus

Jef wrote: unda fluxit cum sanguine. Sanguine is the ablatif and cannot be used with the conjunction et, in which case it would be sanguis. Since the text reads sanguine we need a preposition which in this case is cum

Jef, you are wrong in this case. The subject of the sentence is "latus perforatum"; and both "unda" and "sanguine" are ablatives. The literal translation is "whose pierced flank flowed with (or by) water and blood".

By the way, Mozart, too, knew Latin. --Peter Gerloff 01:46, 4 February 2007 (PST)

The text is quite subtle when examined carefully. The meter is mainly jambic, but there are three exceptions at very crucial locations. Two are on the last lines of stanzas "in cruce pro homine and "in mortis examine". The words "cruce" and "mortis" thus stand out and I can hardly imagine this to be a coincidence. The third exception is "fluxit et sanguine", illustrating the flowing of water and blood. Mozart's setting of the hymn does remarkable justice to the text. The stress of the word "cruce" in the poem is reflected quite adequately. Likewise, "unda fluxit et sanguine" is underlined by notes with a "flowing" connotation. On "mortis", Mozart goes berserk, both melodically and harmonically. Mozart knew not only Latin, he fully understood the text and the intentions of the author, be it Pope Inoocent IV or any other. Our choir also sang the Elgar setting, which pales in comparison. It is very hard not to sing "in cruce pro homine" (jambic meter throughout) in the first stanza. In the second stanza, the Latin text has been altered to match the tune: "vero fluxit sanguine" (we already had "verum corpus" and "vere passum", so the truth of it all is really getting to one's throat) and "mortis in examine" (nothing special - just another exam). -- Marc Voorhoeve