Version 1
Song Note
- Song by Arcadelt?
- Country of origin: Finland?
- “Gaudete” comes to us from a 16th century Finnish songbook, Piae cantiones. In 1853, John Mason Neale (the guy who wrote “Good King Wenceslas”) received a copy and then published his own editions of the songs, introducing the carols to England, right as the Christmas revival was gaining steam. Many more collections of “ancient and new” Christmas carols followed, and the “ancient”ness of the older carols was often overestimated.
- “Gaudete” is actually a Latin chanson by the 16th century Humanist composer Arcadelt, called Vitam quae faciunt, which in turn is based on a setting of the same poem from twenty years earlier, by Senfl.
- see https://violentbrainfever.home.blog/2019/05/10/setting-the-record-straight-on-gaudete/