A late-15th-century carol text from a manuscript in the library of St John’s College, Cambridge, will be brought to life at the College’s Advent Carol Service.
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, directed by Christopher Gray, as part of the service to be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 at 3pm on Sunday 30 November.
When Christopher Gray asked medieval musicologist and Fellow at St John’s, Dr Catherine A. Bradley, to recommend an “old” text for the 2025 Advent commission, she immediately thought of a carol collection she had encountered in the College’s Old Library. She turned to her St John’s colleague, Emeritus Professor of Medieval English Literature and Palaeography, Richard Beadle, for further reading, and they began examining 16 texts of the St John’s manuscript, first transcribed in a 1915 article by medievalist and ghost story writer M.R. James. Among them, three were identified as potentially suitable for the new commission.
Dr Bradley said: “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. 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 selected a particularly beautiful and sophisticated text from the collection, which 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’).
Speaking about the new work, Wallen said: “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. 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.”
Christopher Gray said: “It has been a joy to begin work on Errollyn’s wonderful new carol with the Choir. 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. The Choristers were intrigued to see that two people had worked on the text, with the different handwriting styles clearly discernible.”
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.”
St John’s A Service for Advent with Carols takes place at on Saturday 29 November (6pm) and Sunday 30 November (3pm) – the ballot for tickets has now closed but the Sunday service will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.
Image: Isabelle Freeman
