“Nesciens Mater”
Composed by: Antoine de Févin.
Sung by: Antiquum Documentum.
Available on YouTube
“Nesciens Mater” (Antoine de Févin ♰ 1511). Performed live in a concert of ornamented choral polyphony by Antiquum Documentum in the Chapel of the Resurrection, Pusey House, Oxford on 7 December 2023.
De Févin, a noted Franco-Flemish composer, was a contemporary of Josquin, and his works are often likened in style to those by Josquin.
The “Nesciens Mater” is one of his fourteen surviving motets. This more unusual Marian Antiphon was one favoured particularly by French and English composers (it was not included in the cycle of Marian Antiphons put forward at the Council of Trent).
This setting includes a slightly longer version of the text:
Nesciens mater virgo virum, peperit sine dolore salvatorem saeculorum, ipsum regem angelorum;
sola virgo lactabat, ubere de caelo pleno.
Virgo hodie fidelis etsi verbum genuit incarnatum virgo mansit et post partum quam laudantes omnes dicimus: benedicta tu in mulieribus.
Amen.
