Photo: CC BY S-A 4.0
This 14th-century plainsong hymn was thought to have been composed by the Sisters of the Monastery of Santa Clara in Coimbra, Portugal, during the Black Death (1347-1351). Unsurprisingly it has made a comeback in this digital age with the global Covid-19 pandemic, with many Catholic websites urging their visitors to pray it daily. The hymn makes reference both to the Virgin Mary, and also to the arrangement of the stars which were understood to affect life on earth.
Walter Lambe’s work (c.1479) is from the Eton Choirbook, a collection miraculously saved from Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries.
Recorded 29 August 2019 in Wellington Cathedral of St. Paul
Producer/Sound engineer: David Houston
