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The Marian Anthem in Late Medieval England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

David Skinner
David Skinner*
Affiliation:
Magdalen College, Oxford
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Extract

Alma redemptoris mater is one of the four ancient antiphons or anthems in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This anthem may recall Chaucer’s Prioress’s Tale, and the image of a choirboy, seven years of age, who, having learnt his Alma redemptoris, sang daily the Virgin’s praises even beyond death. Primer in hand he learnt his Alma by heart, only to be murdered in a Jewish ghetto for singing the anthem that he took such pains to perfect. With the song on his lips his throat was cut; but Mary intervened, placed a precious pearl on his tongue, saying,

      My litel child, nowe wol I fecche thee,
      Whan that the greyn is fro thy tonge ytake.
      Be not agast; I wol the nat forsake.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 39: The Church and Mary , 2004 , pp. 168 - 180
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2004

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References

1 Benson, L.D., ed., The Riverside Chaucer, 3rd edn (Oxford, 1987), 212, 11. 667–9 Google Scholar. As delivered, this paper began with a recording of Alma redemptoris mater sung by The Cam bridge Singers, directed by John Rutter, on Collegium Records (COL CD 116).

2 See E. Hoskins, Home Beatae Mariae Virginis, or, Sarum and York Primers with Kindred Books and Primers of the Reformed Roman Use (1901); Butterworth, C.C., The English Primers (1529-1545): Their Publication and Connection with the English Bible and the Reformation in England (Philadelphia, PA, 1953)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 This is apparent from a comprehensive study of collegiate and monastic churches by the present author (unpublished); average annual incomes, as they stood in 1535, may be seen in the Valor Ecclesiastkus, ed. J. Caley and J. Hunter, 6 vols (1810-34).

4 The most comprehensive studies of musical institutions in late medieval England include FLl. Harrison, Music in Medieval Britain (1958; 4th edn, Buren, 1980), and Bowers, R., English Church Polyphony, Variorum Collected Studies Series (Aldershot, 1999)Google Scholar, esp. articles IV-VII. See also Williamson, M., ‘The Eton Choirbook: its institutional and historical back ground’ (University of Oxford D.Phil, thesis, 1997)Google Scholar; Skinner, D., Nicholas Ludford I: Mass Inclina cor meum and Antiphons, Early English Church Music, 44 (2004)Google Scholar, and idem, The Arundel Choirbook: London, Lambeth Palace Library, MS 1 - a Facsimile and Introduction, Roxburgh Club (Arundel, 2004).

5 Williamson, M., ‘The early Tudor court, the provinces and the Eton Choirbook’, Early Music, 25 (1997), 229–43 Google Scholar.

6 See Bray, R., Robert Fayrfax: O bone Iesu, Early English Church Music, 43 (2002)Google Scholar.

7 Williamson, M., ‘ Pictura et scriptura: The Eton Choirbook in its iconographical context’, Early Musk, 28 (2000), 359–80 Google Scholar.

8 For Arundel, see Skinner, The Arundel Choirbook, 9-10; an article on the musical history of Fotheringhay is forthcoming by the same author.

9 For a list of surviving Latin compositions from this period, see M. Hofman and J. Morehen, Latin Music in British Sources c.1485–c.1610, Early English Church Music, Suppl. Vol. 2 (1987).

10 Ave fuit prima salus was set by at least two composers Qohn Mason and ?Richard Lovell). Ave rosa sine spinis was set by Thomas Tallis (d.1585), and the literary text may be found in printed prayer books from 1510 (see Hoskins, Horae, 124; the text is also found in an early fifteenth-century prayer book, Bodley, MS Douce 1, unfoliated).

11 See Hoskins, Horae, 124; the text is also found in several manuscript prayer books from the fifteenth century.

12 See Skinner, Nicholas Ludford, p. xviii.

13 Ibid., p. xx.

14 As given in the Golden Legend and the Protoevangelium, and referred to in a sermon on Mary by Johannes Eck, mentioned in the Acta Sanctorum. See Andrew Carwood’s liner note in a recording of this work by The Cardinally Musick, on the ASV Gaudeamus label (CD GAU 160).

15 Here was played a recording of a Eterne laudis lilium by Robert Fayrfax (d.1521), performed by The Cardinall’s Musick, directed by Andrew Carwood, on the ASV Gaudeamus label (CD GAU 160).

16 Williamson, ‘Pictura et scriptura’.

17 See text on following two pages.

18 At the original delivery, the lecture concluded with a recording of Maria plena virtule by Robert Fayrfax, performed by The Cardinall’s Musick, directed by Andrew Carwood, on the ASV Gaudeamus label (CD GAU 145).