Ecce Iam Noctis Tenuatur Umbra
ECCE IAM NOCTIS TENUATUR UMBRA
An office hymn that was historically sung at Lauds on the Sundays from Pentecost until the end of September. It is considered the counterpart of Nocte surgentes vigilemus omnes for Matins of the same season. It is considered the counterpart of the counterpart of Nocte surgentes vigilemus omnes for Matins of the same season. Both hymns consist of three strophes in Sapphic and Adonic. Recent scholars attribute the Ecce to alcuin rather than to gregory the great, among whose works it is found both in manuscripts and printed editions. Its style and thought, however, coincide with that of Alcuin and the cultivated tastes of literary circles in the ninth-century carolingian renaissance.
Bibliography: Analecta hymnica 51:31032, text. j. connelly, ed. and tr., Hymns of the Roman Liturgy (Westminster, Md.1957).
[m. m. beyenka]