Ann Buckley & The Amra Project by Soundsdoable / Culture File

What did medieval Ireland sound like? If you lived anywhere near an abbey, your soundscape probably included an element of chant. But what did that sound like?

While history has been tough on choir books, a few hardly survivors remain in the library of Trinity College Dublin.

From here, the offices of the saints are teleported into the twenty-first century by musicologist, Ann Buckley, who has been working with contemporary musicians to interpret medieval manuscript, into song.

Reporter: Eleanor Flegg

With thanks to Ann Buckley
Music arranged by Ann Buckley.
Copyright ‘Ann Buckley and the Amra Project’.

‘Magni patris/Mente munda’, Responsory and Prosa, from the Office of St Patrick: Sung by Francis Flood, David Noonan, David O’Shea and Schola Hyberniae (female voices).

"Vertens in cervisiam" - antiphon from the Office of St Brigit: Sung by Lucy Champion and Giovanna Feeley

Ann Buckley's book, Music, Liturgy, and the Veneration of Saints of the Medieval Irish Church in a European Context is available here:

http://www.brepols.net/Pages/ShowProduct.aspx?prod_id=IS-9782503534701-1

Contains tracks

• Magni patris/Mente munda by Soundsdoable / Culture File
• Culture File: The Saints and The Scholar by Soundsdoable / Culture File
• Vertens in cervisiam by Soundsdoable / Culture File