Nicholas Ludford
That a society noted for the preservation and celebration of its artistic and cultural heroes should have allowed the music of Nicholas Ludford to lie in obscurity for over 300 years is both puzzling and reprehensible.
Ludford seems to have spent his life within the bounds of three main religious establishments—Westminster Abbey, St. Stephen’s Royal Collegiate Chapel, and St. Margaret’s, Westminster. He may have been a singer at Westminster around 1500, but his main venue of music making from 1527 to 1549 was St. Stephen’s. He was also a parishioner at St. Margaret’s from at least 1525.
At its dissolution in 1547 St. Stephen’s had 11 vicars-choral, 4 clerks, and 7 choristers . . . quite enough to fill the Upper Chapel with the glorious polyphony of Ludford’s festal masses. They were all pensioned off by young Edward VI’s enthusiastically Protestant government and St. Stephen’s became the seat of the House of Commons. The present Houses of Parliament was built around the ruins of St. Stephen’s after the fire of 1834.
Ludford died in 1557 and is buried in St. Margaret’s.
Missa Lapidaverunt Stephanum (Gloria)
Nicholas Ludford 'Missa Lapidaverunt Stephanum (Gloria)'
Missa Lapidaverunt Stephanum (Credo)
Nicholas Ludford 'Missa Lapidaverunt Stephanum (Credo)'
Credo in unum Deum, Patrem
omnipotentem, factorem caeli et terrae,
visibilium omnium, et invisibilium. Et in
unum Dominum Jesum
Christum, Filium Dei unigenitum. Et ex
Patre natum ante omnia saecula. Deum
de Deo, lumene de lumine, Deum
verum de Deo vero.
Genitum, non factum, consubstantialem
Patri: per quem omnia facta sunt. Qui
propter nos homines, et propter
nostram salutem descendit de
caelis. Et incarnatus est de Spiritu
Sancto ex Maria Virgine: Et homo factus
est. Crucifixus etiam pro nobis: sub
Pontio Pilato passus, et
sepultus est. Et resurrexit tertia die,
secundum Scripturas. Et ascendit in
caelum: sedet ad dexteram Patris. Et
iterum venturus est cum gloria,
judicare vivos et mortuos: cujus regni
non erit finis. Et in Spiritum Sanctum,
Dominum, et vivificantem: qui ex Patre
Filioque procedit. Qui cum
Patre et Filio simul adoratur, et
conglorificatur: qui locutus est per
Prophetas. Et unam sanctam catholicam
et apostolicam Ecclesiam.
Confiteor unum batisma in
remissionem peccatorum. Et exspecto
resurrectionem mortuorum. Et vitam
venturi saeculi. Amen.
Missa Lapidaverunt Stephanum (Sanctus)
Nicholas Ludford 'Missa Lapidaverunt Stephanum (Sanctus)'
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus
Dóminus Deus Sábaoth.
Pleni sunt cæli et terra glória tua.
Hosánna in excélsis.
Benedíctus qui venit in nómine Dómini.
Hosánna in excélsis.
Holy! holy! holy!
Lord God of Sabaoth.
Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.
Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is he who cometh in the name
of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest!