Скачать или смотреть Nesciens Mater - Antoine de Févin - Antiquum Documentum

"Nesciens Mater" (Antoine de Févin d.1511/12 ) performed live in a concert of ornamented choral #polyphony by Antiquum Documentum in the Chapel of the Resurrection, Pusey House, Oxford on the 7th December 2023.

De Févin a noted Franco-Flemish composer was a contemporary of Josquin, and his works are often likened in style to those by Josquin. The "Nesciens Mater" is one of his fourteen surviving motets. This more unusual Marian Antiphon was one favoured particularly by French and English composers (it was not included in the cycle of Marian Antiphons put forward at the council of Trent). This setting includes a slightly different, longer version of the text:

Nesciens mater virgo virum, peperit sine dolore salvatorem saeculorum, ipsum regem angelorum; sola virgo lactabat, ubere de caelo pleno.
Virgo hodie fidelis etsi verbum genuit incarnatum virgo mansit et post partum quam laudantes omnes dicimus: benedicta tu in mulieribus. Amen.

Translation:

Without knowing a man, the mother conceived as a virgin without pain the saviour of the world, the very king of the angels; the virgin alone sucked him, on breasts filled from heaven.
Today the faithful virgin bore the word incarnate, she remained a virgin even after she had given birth whom we all in praise address: blessed art thou amongst women. Amen.

#christmas #advent #oxford #earlymusic #polyphony

Video production: ​⁠​⁠@EdGaut

Antiquum Documentum:
Director: Alexander Trowell
Soprano: Lois Heslop,
Mezzo-soprano: Solàs McDonald, Cosima Gillhammer
Tenor: Alexander Trowell
Baritone: John Morshead
Bass: Daniel Greenway, Ed Gaut