Delectamentum
The title of this record has three levels of meaning. Delectus = selection: this points to the programme of the record, which is the result of a very special selection. Delectamentum = delight: this implies that the record makes a delightful music - a medieval delicacy, one could say - audible, some of it for the first time in the modern age. And: "Panem de caelo praestitisti eis, omne delectamentum in se habentem - Thou didst send them Bread from heaven having in itself every delight": this is the most frequently quoted biblical verse of the feast Corpus Christi, and so the title refers to the solemnity (or feast) from which the material for this record was drawn.
The solemnity of Corpus Christi is the product of the mature Middle Ages. Since Maundy Thursday falls in the time of the feast of Jesus' Passion, after the Paschal season was over people wanted to commemorate the sacrament given during the Last Supper. One (negative) factor contribu-ting to the foundation of the feast was the medieval heretics denying the "real presence" of Christ in the sacrament. Finally, the devotion of a nun made the feast accepted, and in 1264 the Pope spread the feast to the whole of the Latin Church. The founding bull was prepared by Thomas Aquinas, the great theologian of the age, and he was probably the author of a great part of the solemn liturgy.
Being a late medieval feast, the liturgy also required new chants. A small part of them could be taken from the inherited repertory (such as the introit and gradual of the Mass); the majority, however, were new compositions, in the new style of Plainchant rather than the traditional Gregorian tone. In contrast to the classic shapes of Plainchant these pieces are mostly melodious, sometimes almost romantic, striving for deep expression and emotional impact. The texts of the Mass (except the Sequence) and some parts of the Office were taken from the Bible, and there are also texts representing the theol.......
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