Kyrie: Orbis Factor, medieval chant of the Gradual of Eleanor of Brittany ( Lyric Video)
This is an intriguing record, illustrating some aspects of the musical life of a community of Benedictine nuns in the great French double monastery of Fontevrault, an early medieval royal foundation. In 1304, Eleanor of Brittany became its sixteenth Abbess, having been trained as a nun in the English daughter house of Amesbury. The Gradual that bears her arms contains, in addition to the normal chant repertoire, a special repertoire of its own (not, as mistranslated in the notes, a repertory of the Proper which, in any case, was already there). It is this collection of miscellaneous pieces that throw a special light on the musical life of these nuns. Some items were undoubtedly intended to embellish parts of the liturgy itself on high feast days; others
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