15 ғасырғы ағылшын христиандық мәтіні: "Адам байланған"

15th century English Christian text

"Adam lay ybounden", originally titled Adam lay i bowndyn, is a 15th century English Christian text of unknown authorship. It relates the Biblical events of Genesis, Chapter 3 on the Fall of Man. Originally a song text, no contemporary musical settings survive, although there are many notable modern choral settings of the text, such as that by Boris Ord.

The manuscript in which the poem is found (Sloane MS 2593, ff. 10v 11) is held by the British Library, who date the work to c.1400 and speculate that the lyrics may have belonged to a wandering minstrel; other poems included on the same page in the manuscript include "I have a gentil cok", the famous lyric poem "I syng of a mayden" and two riddle songs – "A minstrel's begging song" and "I have a yong suster". Analysis of their dialect by K. R. Palti (2008) places them within the song tradition of East Anglia and more specifically Norfolk; two further carol manuscripts from the county contain songs from Sloane MS 2593. The texts of the songs were first printed by Victorian antiquarian Thomas Wright in 1836, who speculated that a number of the songs were intended for use in mystery plays.

The text was originally meant to be a song text, although no music survives. However, there are many notable modern choral settings of the text, with diverse interpretations by composers such as Peter Warlock, John Ireland, Boris Ord, Howard Skempton and Benjamin Britten (titled Deo Gracias in his Ceremony of Carols). A new setting by Giles Swayne was commissioned for and first performed in 2009 by the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge and their annual broadcast of the Advent carol service on BBC Radio 3. The Connecticut composer Robert Edward Smith wrote a setting of the text that was premiered in December 2018 in Hartford at Trinity College's annual Lessons and Carols. The piece featured the College's Chapel Singers, directed by Christopher Houlihan.

Boris Ord's 1957 setting is probably the best known version as a result of its traditional performance following the First Lesson at the annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at the chapel of King's College, Cambridge, where Ord was organist from 1929 to 1957.