The words:
O magnum mysterium, et admirable sacramentum, ut animalia viderent Dominum natum, jacentum in praesepio!
Beata Virgo, cujus viscera meruerunt portare Dominum Christum. Alleluia!
O great mystery, and wondrous sacrament, that animals should see the newborn Lord, lying in their manger!
Blessed is the Virgin whose womb was worthy to bear the Lord Jesus Christ. Alleluia!
This is sung by the University of Santo Tomas Alumni Singers directed by Allan Diona Sims. My understanding is that this performance is in 2006 at the Hollywood Choir Festival, at the Hollywood United Methodist Church across from the Kodak Theater.
This is an excellent performance of this remarkable setting. You can watch a liturgical performance at the 2009 Christmas Eve Midnight Mass at Westminster Cathedral [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y9yM53TowA&feature=player_embedded]here[/url]. It is sung as Abp. Nichols prepares the altar for the Eucharist and a family brings forward the oblations. It is over a minute slower than the recording above. Being part of the liturgy makes it even more moving.
Lauridsen talks about this work and his life in an interview [url=http://www.bruceduffie.com/lauridsen.html]here[/url].
[blockquote]Our relationship [with the director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale] started with a bang, so to speak, because the very first piece I wrote for him was O Magnum Mysterium, and that’s a piece that he predicted. The night that he introduced it to the audience at the Master Chorale Dorothy Chandler Pavilion Concert, he said that when he is asked who is favorite composer is, it’s Tomas Luis de Victoria, because of that great renaissance setting of O Magnum Mysterium. It’s as fresh and vibrant today as it was umpteen hundred years ago, and he predicted at that concert that this would be the twentieth century counterpart of that. And as we know, it’s become the best-selling octavo in the history of Thedore Presser, who has been in business for over two hundred years now. We’ve had perhaps three thousand performances of it.[/blockquote]