tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11760886.post8723563747918154725..comments2024-02-29T15:52:40.963-05:00Comments on chantblog: For the feast of St. Thomas Becket: In Rama sonat gemitus ("The sound of weeping is heard in Rama") blshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07627725321531151309noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11760886.post-55254682059507558522018-01-02T11:28:04.345-05:002018-01-02T11:28:04.345-05:00Here's another possibility; apparently some ar...<a href="https://www.allmusic.com/composition/in-rama-sonat-gemitus-conductus-mc0002657821" rel="nofollow">Here's another possibility</a>; apparently some are convinced by the tense used in the composition:<br /><br />'The conductus In Rama sonat gemitus (In Rama, sounds of lamentation) is an anonymous work found in the French manuscript source Wolfenbüttel 677. Through clever use of biblical allusion, it comments directly, and rather caustically, on the exile of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, from England to France in 1164. Becket famously returned in 1170, only to be murdered there after a couple of month's time. This dates In Rama sonat gemitus to the years 1165-1170; its closing lines, "an exile, as if he were sold as slave/dwells now in France, as though it were Egypt" indicates that his arrival in France was a relatively recent occurrence.'<br /><br />blsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11760886.post-24407028126306058842018-01-02T11:12:24.254-05:002018-01-02T11:12:24.254-05:00Interesting questions, to which I don't really...Interesting questions, to which I don't really know the answer since I don't know the manuscript (except that it's 12th century).<br /><br />But I'll hazard a guess for now: since there is no mention of Becket's murder, it seems unlikely to have been composed after that. That is/was a completely shocking event, and I think it unlikely the composer would have concentrated only on the exile without mentioning (or somehow working into the composition) the murder.<br /><br />I do need to learn more about the ms, though. Thanks for commenting!blsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11760886.post-48927430926950618172018-01-02T05:13:15.067-05:002018-01-02T05:13:15.067-05:00Why does it have to date to the time of St Thomas ...Why does it have to date to the time of St Thomas exile? Couldn't it have been written about that period, in retrospect? In what context could we imagine that it would be sung, while he was alive?Benjamin Ekmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10566319044719994375noreply@blogger.com