Buckland Abbey recreates music telling of medieval life in extraordinary discovery
Almost five centuries ago a community of monks in the West Country of England gathered to sing, imploring their God to help them endure the challenges of medieval life.
Thanks to an extraordinary discovery of music that survived Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries in the early 16th century, the songs created by the Buckland Abbey monks were ringing out again across the hills and woods of the Tavy valley in Devon this weekend.
The themes are heavy – the threats from disease and crop failures, not to mention powerful rulers – but the polyphonic style is bright and joyful, a contrast to the sort of mournful chants most associated with monks.
“It’s an extraordinary rich, textured sound,” said Prof James Clark, a University of Exeter historian, as the university’s chapel choir rehearsed at Buckland. “They’re all singing together but following different melodies. It’s a sort of melodious cacophony of sound.”
