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Maiden In The Mor Lay
"Maiden in the mor lay" or "The Maid of the Moor" is a Middle English lyric of the early 14th century, set to a melody which is now lost. The literary historian Richard L. Greene called it "one of the most haunting lyrics of all the Middle Ages", and Edith Sitwell thought it "a miracle of poetry". It is a notoriously enigmatic poem, perhaps devotional, perhaps secular, which depicts a maiden in the wilderness who lives on flowers and spring-water. Critics are divided in their interpretation of her: she may be the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, a water-sprite, or an ordinary human girl. The 14th-century bishop Richard de Ledrede's dissatisfaction with this song led to an alternative lyric for it being written, a Latin religious poem, ''Peperit virgo''. Text Manuscript and publication The poem survives in only one manuscript, Bodleian Library Rawlinson D.913, which was bequeathed to the library in 1755 by the antiquarian bibliophile Richard Rawlinson. Bound into this ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English period. Scholarly opinion varies, but the '' Oxford English Dictionary'' specifies the period when Middle English was spoken as being from 1150 to 1500. This stage of the development of the English language roughly followed the High to the Late Middle Ages. Middle English saw significant changes to its vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and orthography. Writing conventions during the Middle English period varied widely. Examples of writing from this period that have survived show extensive regional variation. The more standardized Old English language became fragmented, localized, and was, for the most part, being improvised. By the end of the period (about 1470) and aided by the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bishop Of Ossory
The Bishop of Ossory () is an episcopal title which takes its name after the ancient of Kingdom of Ossory in the Province of Leinster, Ireland. In the Roman Catholic Church it remains a separate title, but in the Church of Ireland it has been united with other bishoprics. History The diocese of Ossory was one of the twenty-four dioceses established at the Synod of Rathbreasail in 1111 and coincided with the ancient Kingdom of Ossory (Osraige); this is unusual, as Christian dioceses are almost always named for cities, not for regions. The episcopal see has always been in Kilkenny, the capital of Ossory at the time of the Synod of Rathbreasail. The erroneous belief that the cathedral was originally further north at Aghaboe is traced by John Bradley to a 16th-century misinterpretation of a 13th-century property transfer, combined with the fact that the abbey at the site which became St Canice's Cathedral, Kilkenny, was a daughter house of Aghaboe Abbey. Following the Refor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
NMC Recordings
NMC Recordings is a British recording label and a charity which specialises in recording works by living composers from the British Isles. History The composer Colin Matthews founded NMC in 1989, with financial assistance from the Holst Foundation. NMC is an abbreviation for "New Music Cassettes", which refers to the intended main means of packaging its recordings at the time. Matthews continues as a producer of NMC's recordings. NMC was originally administered through the Society for the Promotion of New Music. In 1992, NMC became independent, and Matthews invited Bill Colleran to become NMC's first board chairman. Colleran served in this capacity from 1993 to 2004. Additional financial support for NMC resulted after the 1993 Copyright Duration Directive (93/98/EEC), which extended the copyright term from 50 to 70 years. As a result, the music of Gustav Holst came back into copyright, and NMC obtained increased funding. However, it has fallen out of copyright again, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicholas Sackman
Nicholas Sackman (born 12 April 1950) is an English classical composer. Education Sackman studied composition at the University of Nottingham, completed his MA at the University of Leeds with the composer Alexander Goehr in 1974, and was subsequently awarded a Doctorate of Music from the University of Nottingham in 1996. Early performances During this time he had many performances both in the United Kingdom and further afield with ''Ensembles and Cadenzas'' performed at the BBC Young Composers Forum and the Gaudeamus Festival, ''A Pair of Wings'' at the Bath Music Fest and the 1974 ISCM Festival, ''Paraphrase'', premiered by the London Sinfonietta, the ''String Quartet no. 2'' and his ''Piano Sonata'', written for Peter Lawson. Following his study he became a Head of Music in secondary schools in London and then Hertfordshire, which led to a number of commissions for amateur orchestral players including ''Mosaic'' for the Nottingham Youth Orchestra, ''Cecilia dances'' for the H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sacred And Profane (Britten)
''Sacred and Profane'', Op. 91, is a collection of 'Eight Medieval Lyrics' for unaccompanied voices in five parts ( SSATB) composed by Benjamin Britten in 1975. The work was first performed by the Wilbye Consort of Voices, for whom the work was composed, on 14 September 1975 at The Maltings, Snape in Suffolk, England (Elaine Barry & Rosemary Hardy, sopranos, Margaret Cable, contralto, Nigel Rogers, tenor, Geoffrey Shaw, bass), directed by Peter Pears. Structure The piece comprises eight lyrics based on medieval English poems. #St Godric's Hymn #I mon waxe wod ("Foweles in the frith") # Lenten is come #The long night #Yif ic of luve can # Carol #Ye that pasen by #A Death Music The opening song is characterized by its use of descending glissandi, rising chords, and modal inflection. The second, "I mon waxe wod", correlates nature with madness. The third setting uses syncopation and imitation to celebrate the arrival of spring, while the fourth returns to sombre winter. The fif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other vocal music, orchestral and chamber pieces. His best-known works include the opera '' Peter Grimes'' (1945), the '' War Requiem'' (1962) and the orchestral showpiece '' The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra'' (1945). Born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, the son of a dentist, Britten showed talent from an early age. He studied at the Royal College of Music in London and privately with the composer Frank Bridge. Britten first came to public attention with the ''a cappella'' choral work '' A Boy was Born'' in 1934. With the premiere of ''Peter Grimes'' in 1945, he leapt to international fame. Over the next 28 years, he wrote 14 more operas, establishing himself as one of the leading 20th-century composers in the genre. In addition to large-scal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific '' A Treatise on the Astrolabe'' for his 10-year-old son Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament. Among Chaucer's many other works are '' The Book of the Duchess'', '' The House of Fame'', '' The Legend of Good Women'', and '' Troilus and Criseyde''. He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin. Chaucer's contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed him as "the firste fy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corpus Christi Carol
The Corpus Christi Carol or Falcon Carol is a Middle or Early Modern English hymn (or carol), first written down by an apprentice grocer named Richard Hill between 1504 and 1536. The original writer of the carol remains anonymous. The earliest surviving record of the piece preserves only the lyrics and is untitled. It has survived in altered form in the folk tradition as the Christmas carol " Down In Yon Forest". The structure of the carol is six stanzas, each with rhyming couplets. The tense changes in the fourth stanza from past to present continuous. While a number of different interpretations have been offered over time, Eamon Duffy writes that "there can be no question whatever" that the carol's "strange cluster of images" are derived "directly from the cult of the Easter sepulchre, with its Crucifix, Host, and embroidered hangings, and the watchers kneeling around it day and night." One theory about the meaning of the carol is that it is concerned with the legend of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Bernard (composer)
James Michael Bernard (20 September 1925 – 12 July 2001) was a British film composer, particularly associated with horror films produced by Hammer Film Productions. Beginning with ''The Quatermass Xperiment'', he scored such films as ''The Curse of Frankenstein'' and ''Dracula''. He also occasionally scored non-Hammer films including '' Windom's Way'' (1957) and '' Torture Garden'' (1967). Early years and World War II Bernard was educated at Wellington College, previously attended by Christopher Lee, who starred in many of the Hammer horror films Bernard scored. In an interview late in his life, Bernard recalled that in his mid-teens three of his favourite books were '' The Devil Rides Out'', ''She'', and '' The Hound of the Baskervilles''. While still a schoolboy, Bernard met Benjamin Britten when the composer came to consult the school's art master, Kenneth Green, about the stage designs for '' Peter Grimes''. Britten took interest in an inter-house music competition, and a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frank Llewellyn Harrison
Francis Llewellyn Harrison, better known as "Frank Harrison" or "Frank Ll. Harrison" (29 September 1905 – 29 December 1987) was one of the leading musicologists of his time and a pioneering ethnomusicologist. Initially trained as an organist and composer, he turned to musicology in the early 1950s, first specialising in English and Irish music of the Middle Ages and increasingly turning to ethnomusicological subjects in the course of his career. His ''Music in Medieval Britain'' (1958) is still a standard work on the subject, and ''Time, Place and Music'' (1973) is a key textbook on ethnomusicology. Education and early musical career Born in Dublin, Ireland, Harrison was the second son of Alfred Francis Harrison and Florence May, née Nash. The Welsh origin of his second given name, "Llewellyn", derives from his maternal grandmother, a Williams from Anglesey. He became a chorister at St Patrick's Cathedral in 1912 and was educated at the cathedral grammar school (until 1920) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph C
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic countries. In Portuguese and Spanish, the name is "José". In Arabic, including in the Quran, the name is spelled '' Yūsuf''. In Persian, the name is "Yousef". The name has enjoyed significant popularity in its many forms in numerous countries, and ''Joseph'' was one of the two names, along with ''Robert'', to have remained in the top 10 boys' names list in the US from 1925 to 1972. It is especially common in contemporary Israel, as either "Yossi" or "Yossef", and in Italy, where the name "Giuseppe" was the most common male name in the 20th century. In the first century CE, Joseph was the second most popular male name for Palestine Jews. In the Book of Genesis Joseph is Jacob's eleventh son and Rachel's first son, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Of Egypt
Mary of Egypt ( cop, Ϯⲁⲅⲓⲁ Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ Ⲛⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ; ; c. 344 – c. 421) is an Egyptian saint, highly venerated as a Desert Mother in the Eastern Orthodox and Coptic Churches. The Catholic Church commemorates her as a patron saint of penitents. Life The primary source of information on Saint Mary of Egypt is the ''Vita'' written of her by Saint Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem (634–638). Most of the information in this section is taken from this source. Saint Mary of Egypt, also known as Maria Aegyptiaca, was born somewhere in the Province of Egypt, and at the age of twelve ran away from her parents to the city of Alexandria. There, she lived an extremely dissolute life. In her ''Vita'' it states that she often refused the money offered for her sexual favors, as she was driven "by an insatiable and an irrepressible passion", and that she mainly lived by begging, supplemented by spinning flax. After seventeen years of this lifestyle, she ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
