CAEDMON’S HYMN on the Anglo-Saxon Lyre

This is the earliest known poem in the English language, written in the 7th century, in what is called “Old English”. We know very little about the author, whose name was Caedmon, beyond what was said about him by “The Father of English History”, the monk known as The Venerable Bede (672 - 735 A.D.). The setting for my performance of the hymn is Odda’s Chapel in Gloucestershire, South West England. The chapel is Anglo-Saxon, built a decade before the Norman invasion. Although we have the words of the hymn, we have no idea what Caedmon’s music sounded like. I wrote the melody myself after being inspired by an excellent workshop given by the wonderful singer and musicologist, Stef Conner, and her fellow musicologist and ancient music historian, Hanna Marti.