The carol text, Nolo mortem peccatoris, has been newly set to music by Master of the King’s Music, Errollyn Wallen CBE.
The world premiere will be performed by the Choir of St John’s College during the Advent Carol Service being broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 on Sunday 30 November.
The wheels were set in motion when the Choir’s Director of Music Christopher Gray asked medieval musicologist and St John’s Fellow Dr Catherine A Bradley, a College Associate Lecturer, to recommend an ‘old’ text for the 2025 Advent carol commission.
Recalling a carol collection in the Old Library, Dr Bradley and St John’s colleague Professor Richard Beadle, Emeritus Professor of Medieval English Literature and Palaeography, examined 16 texts in the manuscript first transcribed in 1915 by medievalist and ghost story writer MR James. Three were identified as potentially suitable.
“These carol texts are preserved together in Manuscript S. 54, a small, paper booklet of 16 leaves, dating from the second half of the 15th century. The booklet is very modest in appearance and is therefore a remarkable and rare survival from the period,” said Dr Bradley, University Music and Associate Professor in Early Music.
“It was written down by two different scribes and stitched into a protective piece of parchment. Unlike some medieval carols that include musical notation, the texts in this manuscript survive without any music: we lack any clues as to how they might once have sounded.”
Errollyn Wallen, who has held her honorary Royal appointment since 2024, selected a beautiful and sophisticated text from the collection. It includes a refrain in both English and Latin: ‘Father my will it is, nolo mortem peccatoris’ (‘I do not wish that a sinner should die’).
“I worked on the late medieval text of Nolo mortem peccatoris with a special thrill at the fact that these words had not been sung for centuries, and their original melody remains unknown,” said Wallen. “This Advent carol moves from the dark to the light – from the terrifying prospect of death to the ‘joy and mirth’ of a new beginning.”
“It has been a joy to begin work on Errollyn’s wonderful new carol with the Choir,” said Christopher Gray. “The Librarian, Tanya Kirk, kindly allowed us all to see the precious S.54 manuscript, and this has greatly enriched the experience as we prepare to premiere the new musical setting which captures its spirit through a modern lens.”
Dr Bradley added: “The idea to use one of the carol texts and thus to bring back to life a song that had been silent for hundreds of years arose in collaborative and congenial circumstances that typify the best of St John’s College life.”
A Service for Advent with Carols at St John’s takes place in the College Chapel on Saturday 29 November and Sunday 30 November. Tickets are no longer available but Sunday’s service will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 at 3pm and on BBC Sounds.
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