An alleluia antiphon for the Blessed Virgin Mary, in honour of her Presentation last Saturday (November 21th).
This one is ear-marked to be the next in a series I am writing for the medieval/contemporary group La Noeva. I’m curious to see how the a cappella six voice version will turn out – more anon!
alleluia o virga mediatrix
alleluia o branch and mediator your holy body has overcome death and your belly has illuminated every creature in the beautiful flower that rises from the sweet wholeness of your sealed chastity
Here, as promised, the whole song cycle with all eight pieces put together.
divine zeal in highest praise gave the kiss of peace to the virgin Ursula, with her crowd, among all the people; so wherever they came to on their way they were received with the joy of heavenly paradise, because they appeared in honourable religious behaviour; from their fatherland and from other regions religious men and wise men came to join them who kept them in virginal protection and ministered to them in all things; because god had shown in the first woman how woman should be nurtured by the protection of man
because air is in flight and fulfils its duty in all creatures and the firmament sustains it and the air feeds on that strength; and so these girls were supported by the highest men bearing the banners of virginal nature’s royal issue; because god sent his dew upon them from which came a great fame so that all people savoured this fame like food; but the devil in his envy mocked it since he has never left any work of god untouched
So here is Part 2 of my song cycle: St Ursula at lauds, with the second set of four revisited antiphons put together as one piece.
In my next post, I will put the Parts 1 and 2 together so that you can listen to the full song cycle with the minimum number of clicks…
St Ursula at lauds: Part 2 (no.s 5 to 8) – the firmament sustains
because air is in flight and fulfils its duty in all creatures and the firmament sustains it and the air feeds on that strength; and so these girls were supported by the highest men bearing the banners of virginal nature’s royal issue; because god sent his dew upon them from which came a great fame so that all people savoured this fame like food; but the devil in his envy mocked it since he has never left any work of god untouched
This is the eighth and last revisited antiphon in my song cycle: St Ursula at lauds. I will now put no.s 5 – 8 together and post them as Part 2. Watch this space! In the meantime, here is the final piece of the puzzle:
St Ursula at lauds: no. 8 sed diabolus
but the devil in his envy mocked it since he has never left any work of god untouched [and the firmament sustains it] (additional text in [ ] is from aer enim volat, the first piece in Part 2 of this song cycle)
I am excited to post the seventh and penultimate piece in my song cycle St Ursula at lauds.
St Ursula at lauds: no. 7 deus enim rorem
because god sent his dew upon them from which came a great fame so that all people savoured this fame like food [and the firmament sustains it] (additional text in [ ] is from aer enim volat, the first piece in Part 2 of this song cycle)
