O Clavis David - Katy Lavinia Cooper

 

 

O clauis david & septrum domus Israel, qui aperis & nemo claudit, claudis & nemo aperit, veni & educ uinctum de domo carceris sedentem in tenebris et in umbra mortis.

O clauis dauid, of whom Isaias tolde,
Hote septure & key, to eche look welle mett
Of Israelle – I meane of Iacobus howsholde –
Thowe opynyst lokes whiche no wyghte can shett,
And closist a-geyn þat cannott be vnshett;
Lowse vs, þi presoners, boundene in wrechidnesse,
Off synne shadowed with mortalle derknesse

O Clavis David, of whom Isaiah told,

Called sceptre and key, to every lock well fit

Of Israel – I mean of Jacob’s household –

Thou openest locks which no creature can shut,

And closest again what cannot be unshut;

Loose us, thy prisoners, bound in wretchedness

Of sin, shadowed with mortal darkness.

Music: Katy Lavinia Cooper
Words: Fifteenth Century, (British Library Harley 45), with thanks to  Eleanor Parker - http://aclerkofoxford.blogspot.co.uk
Solos: Sarah Mills, Lindis Kipp, Moira McKenzie & Catriona Downie

This Middle English translation is preserved in a manuscript now held in the British Library, and thought to date from the early fifteenth century. The O Antiphons were added to the manuscript in a hand of the late fifteenth century when the volume is thought to have belonged to a woman named Margaret Brent, who was possibly a laywoman from Salisbury.