St Augustine

[organist]

I am told that a speaker commented that he could not find the origin of the famous "He who prays twice sings twice" in any of St Augustine's works.
Is this true? Where did it come from?

[docmattc]

The General Instruction does not attribute this to Augustine:

There is also the ancient proverb: “One who sings well prays twice.”

It says Augustine said “Singing is for one who loves.” (Sermon 336)

[Southern Comfort]

I've always understood that St Augustine quoted this saying (Qui cantat bis orat ─ the SSG motto), but that no one knows who actually wrote it. Maybe he didn't even quote it!

[musicus]

Qui cantat bis orat ─ the SSG motto

No it isn't - see rather the top of this page, on the blue banner and to the right of Old Greg (as we Old Catholics like to call him).

I have always thought that the SSG motto is - or certainly should be - especially appropriate on its forum.

[Southern Comfort]

Qui cantat bis orat ─ the SSG motto

No it isn't - see rather the top of this page, on the blue banner and to the right of Old Greg (as we Old Catholics like to call him).

I have always thought that the SSG motto is - or certainly should be - especially appropriate on its forum.

Whoops, again! I now realise why in a moment of inattention I wrote that: it's because of the fuss in the Society's journal many years ago, when no one could agree who had written Non clamor sed amor, let alone whether it was a correct quotation, and it was suggested that Qui cantat bis orat might be less controversial!

A quick web search comes up with, variously,

Non clamor, sed amor,
non vox, sed votum,
non cordula, sed cor
cantat in aure Dei

Translated as "Not clamour but love, not rumour but dedication, not violence but intelligence sings in the ear of God", attributed to Tommaso de Celano (13th century). The translation of cordula is interesting ─ occasionally others translate this as an adjective meaning "to do with flagellation" (!), presumably deriving the word from the cords of the whip.

or

Non clamor sed amor
cantat in aure Dei.
Tunc vox est apta chori
si cor consonat ori

(Not shouting but love sings in God's ear. Then a voice is suited to the choir if the heart is consonant with the voice.) (Unattributed)

or

Non vox, sed votum,
non musica cordula, sed cor.
Non clamor, sed amor
cantat in aure Dei

(Not the voice but the deed, not the music of the heart [or perhaps "not stringed music" ─ and see below] but the heart. Not noise but love sings in the ear of God.) The word-order is different. Attributed to Jordanus de Saxonia, an Augustinian hermit born in Quedlinburg in 1299, but he may well have been quoting it. Perhaps this is the source of the [mis-]attribution to St Augustine?


If I remember, part of the fuss was whether it should be cantat (sings [in God's ear]) or sonat (sounds [in God's ear]). It is interesting to see that the motto of the Milan Schola Gregoriana has psallat (sings a psalm [in God's ear]). They also have an additional line of text which says Lingua consonet menti et mens consonet cum Deo (the tongue is consonant with the mind, and the mind is consonant with God), which echoes the anonymous second example above.

And here's Hubert Richards' translation of the same inscription, more or less, in the Church of San Damiano in Assisi (inscription dated 16th century):

In tune with God

Non vox sed votum,
non clamor sed amor,
non cordula sed cor
psallit in aure Dei.
Lingua consonet menti,
et mens concordet Deo.

It is not the voice but the choice,
not the clarity but the charity,
not the harp but the heart
that makes music in the ear of God.
Let your tongue reflect your thoughts,
and your thoughts be in tune with God.

Different word-order again. The verb psallit is also to be found on a number of English church bells where the Non clamor quotation is inscribed. The word cordula is once again linked to stringed instruments.

[Southern Comfort]

My apologies for a hurried job. The second part of the Milan text of course uses the subjunctive: "Let the tongue be consonant with the mind, and the mind be consonant with God".