Hortus conclusus (plainchant) (Anonymous)
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(Posted 2026-03-09) CPDL #88581:
- Editor: Mick Swithinbank (submitted 2026-03-09). Score information: A4, 1 page, 739 kB Copyright: CPDL
- Edition notes: Continuation written by Mick Swithinbank in 2002 to render the chant performable: brief though it is, it has been publicly performed on a number of occasions, including in 2026.
General Information
Title: Hortus conclusus (plainchant)
Composer: Anonymous
Lyricist:
Number of voices: 1v Voicing: Ad libitum
Genre: Sacred, Unknown
Language: Latin
Instruments: A cappella
First published:
Description: Offertory for the feast of the conception of the Virgin Mary. The source is fragmentary: a page removed from a choirbook (printed on paper, but featuring a hand-illuminated initial), apparently Venetian and most likely 16th-century, but as the continuation appeared on a different folio, it cannot be retrieved. Standard chantbooks such as the Liber Usualis do not contain this chant. The text of the fragment - a mere nine words before the page turn - is drawn from Chapter 4 of the Song of Songs, but with the interpolation 'O Maria' suiting it for use in veneration of the Virgin Mary, an appropriation which was not uncommon.
External websites:
Original text and translations
Latin text
Hortus conclusus, fons signatus, emissiones tuae paradisus, O Maria,
Malorum punicorum cum pomorum fructibus.
Fons hortorum, puteus aquarum viventium, quae fluunt impetu de Libano.
English translation
You are a garden locked up, you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain. Your fragrance, Mary, transports us to paradise: [your plants are] an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits.
[You are] a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon.
(Song of Songs Chapter 4, translation adapted from the New International Version, with a non-Biblical interpolation.)