Song of the Nuns of Chester (arr.)
For SSA and piano (2006), 2’30”
Text: 13th or 14th-century English carol
Premiered December 13, 2008, New York, NY; Glass Menagerie, Music Director Susan Glass
Program Notes
This arrangement is adapted from my Fantasy on Medieval Carols, a through-composed 15-minute work, written for the 30th anniversary of The Greenwich Village Singers. The piece is built around free arrangements of seven Latin carols, scored for mixed chorus, children’s chorus (SA), and piano. As with the other movements in the larger work, the original melody is altered, tossed between voices, and presented in a more modern harmonic idiom, but it remains in essence a lullaby. The carol’s soothing refrain, also used as an accompaniment (“Lully, lully, lu”), forms the basis for the newly written coda of the SSA version.
Song of the Nuns of Chester (arr.)
13th or 14th-century English carol
He who made the earth so fair, lully, lully lu,
Slumbers in a stable bare, by by, by by, by,
Warm'd by cattle standing there, lully, lully lu!
Jesus sleeps in Mary's arm, lully, lully lu,
Sheltered there from rude alarm, by, by by, by,
None can do Him ill or harm, lully, lully lu!
See his Mother o'er Him bend, lully, lully lu,
Hers the joy to soothe and tend, by, by by, by,
Hers the bliss that knows no end, lully, lully lu!
(Trans. Irene Gass)
Qui creavit coelum, Lully, lully, lu!
Nascitur in stabulo, By, by, by, by, by,
Rex qui regit seculum, Lully, lully, lu!
Lactat mater Domini, By, by, by, by, by,
Osculatur parvulum, Lully, lully, lu!
Et adorat Dominum, By, by, by, by, by,
Roga mater filium, Lully, lully, lu!
Ut det nobis gaudium, By, by, by, by, by,
In pereni gloria,Lully, lully, lu