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March 21, 2025
I Sing Of A Maiden: Magical realism from the 14C
I sing of a maiden
That is makeles;
King of all kings
To here sone che ches.
He cam also still
There his moder was
As dew in Aprille
That fallit on the gras.
He cam also still
To his moders bowr
As dew in Aprille
That fallit on the flower.
He cam also still
There his moder lay,
As dew in Aprille
That fallit on the spray.
Moder and maiden
Was never non but che;
We may switch a lady
Godes moder be.
In celebration of spring, equinox and Annunciation, and with the magic of the Middle English poetry as real as the real is magical, we sing you our setting of this exquisite 14th century lyric. Like our local church, this lyric is 700 years old and still singing. We sing it in a 14th century style and recapitulate in a 20th century version marking the genesis and septuacentenary of that (and other such) church. We wrote the Early Music style tune on the harmonium it's performed on and the Modern rock tune is built on an arrangement of the famous Jack Bruce bass riff on Cream's "Sunshine of your Love". The paintings are Fra Lippo Lippi's Madonna and Child, Far Angelico's Annunciation and Gustav Klimt's Mother and Child.
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