We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Garrit gallus​/​In nova fert animus

from A 14th​-​Century Salmagundi by Blue Heron

/

lyrics

TRIPLUM
Garrit gallus flendo dolorose,
luget quippe gallorum concio,
que satrape traditur dolose,
excubitus sedens officio.
Atque vulpes, tamquam vispilio
in Belial vigens astucia,
de leonis consensu proprio
monarchisat, atat angaria.
Rursus, ecce, Jacob familia
Pharaone altero fugatur;
non ut olim Iude vestigia
subintrare potens, lacrimatur.
In deserto fame flagellatur,
adiutoris carens armatura,
quamquam clamat, tamen spoliatur,
continuo fordan moritura,
miserorum exulum vox dura!
O Gallorum garritus doloris,
cum leonis cecitas obscura
fraudi paret vulpis proditoris
eius fastus sustinens erroris
insurgito: alias labitur
et labetur quod habes honoris,
quod mox in facinus tardis
ultoribus itur.

MOTETUS
In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas:
draco nequam quem olim penitus
mirabili crucis potencia debellabit Michael inclitus,
mox Absalon munitus gracia,
mox Ulixis gaudens facundia,
mox lupinis dentibus armatus,
sub Tersitis miles milicia,
rursus vivit in vulpem mutatus,
fraudi cuius lumine privatus
leo vulpe imperante paret.
Oves suggit pullis saciatus.
Heu! suggere non cessat et aret
ad nupcias carnibus non caret.
Ve pullis mox, ve ceco leoni!
coram Christo tandem ve draconi.


Translation:

The rooster cries, lamenting sadly,
indeed the whole assembly of roosters laments,
for they have been betrayed by the crafty satrap
who was supposed to guard them.
And the fox, like a thief in the night,
vigorous with the cunning of Belial,
reigns with the full consent
of the lion himself.
Behold how the family of Jacob
once again flees another Pharaoh:
no longer able to follow the path of the Jews
as before, it weeps.
In the desert it is tortured by hunger,
with no armor to help.
though they cry out yet they are robbed;
soon perhaps to die,
harsh is the voice of the wretched exiles,
O painful cries of the roosters!
Since the dark blindness of the lion
is subject to the deceit of the treacherous fox,
supporting his arrogance by encouraging sin,
rise up! otherwise what is left
of your honor slips away and will continue to slip away.
With only slow avengers it will soon
turn to villainy.

My mind is bent to tell of forms changed into new things:
that evil dragon, whom glorious Michael once utterly
defeated by the miraculous power of the cross,
now armed thanks to Absalom,
now gloating with the eloquence of Ulysses,
now armed with the teeth of a wolf,
a soldier in the army of Thersites—
he lives again, changed into a fox.
Deprived of sight by the fox’s tail
the lion, ruled by the fox, obeys.
He sucks the blood of lambs, sated with chickens.
Alas! he never stops sucking and thirsts
for a marriage, he does not lack for meat.
Now woe to the chickens, woe to the blind lion!
and finally, before the face of Christ, woe to the dragon.

Translations by Scott Metcalfe, Thomas Forrest Kelly, and Lawrence Rosenwald.

credits

from A 14th​-​Century Salmagundi, released September 4, 2020

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Blue Heron image

Blue Heron Boston, Massachusetts

Winner of the 2018 Gramophone Classical Music Award for Early Music (the first non-European group to win the award), Blue Heron (Scott Metcalfe, dir.) has been acclaimed by The Boston Globe as “one of the Boston music community’s indispensables” and hailed by Alex Ross in The New Yorker for the “expressive intensity” of its interpretations. ... more

contact / help

Contact Blue Heron

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Blue Heron, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Saxophonist Isaiah Collier chats about his new LP and the influence of Pharoah Sanders.
listen now