Let the round world with songs rejoice

Today, June 29th, is the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul., the two great apostles of the Christian faith.

I think I've observed this each year, so, I wanted to make sure that I was not upload a "repeat"... ;-)

This hymn is an Office Hymn for the Feast of an Apostle, so, it is the liturgically correct hymn for evensong on this day.

The Office Hymn is generally sung after the "Preces" (opening responses), but may be sung immediately preceding the Magnificant.

For once, I think I've actually uploaded a well-known hymn!

The tune, known as "Deus tuorum militum" is a Swiss melody which appeared in the "Grenoble Antiphoner" in 1753.

The Latin text, "Exultet caelum laudibus" was translated by Richard Mant (1776-1848). He 1848) was an English churchman who became a bishop in Ireland. He was a prolific writer, his major work being a History of the Church of Ireland.

He was born at Southampton, where his father Richard Mant D.D. was headmaster of the King Edward VI School. He was educated at Winchester College and at Trinity College, Oxford which he entered in 1793. He graduated B.A. in 1797, and became a Fellow of Oriel College in 1798, a position he held to 1804.

Mant was ordained in the Church of England, holding a curacy at Southampton in 1802. He was appointed to the vicarage of Coggeshall, Essex in 1810 and in 1811 he became Bampton Lecturer. In 1816 he was made rector of St Botolph's, Bishopsgate, and in 1820 became Bishop of Killaloe and Kilfenora, in Ireland. In 1823 he was translated to Down and Connor, and from 1842 was the Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore when the two dioceses united.

The score is attached below, as well as portrait of Richard Mant.

For those who choose not to look at the score, the full text is given in the First Comment.