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performed by chorus members combined from the New Orleans and Baton Rouge areas under the direction of Paul Mauffray. Latin hymn in honor of John the Baptist purportedly composed by Guido d'Arezzo (991-1033). The chant is useful for teaching singing because of the way it uses successive notes of the scale: the first six musical phrases of each stanza begin on a successively higher note of the hexachord, giving ut–re–mi–fa–so–la; though ut is replaced by do in modern solfège. TEXT: Ut queant laxis resonare fibris, Mira gestorum famuli tuorum, Solve polluti labii reatum, Sancte Iohannes. TRANSLATION: Do let our voices resonate most purely, miracles telling, far greater than many; so let our tongues be lavish in your praises, Saint John the Baptist. Alternate translation: So that your servants may, with loosened voices, resound the wonder of your deeds, clean the guilt from our stained lip, Saint John the Baptist.
