Alban (Saint) - Ave Maria! Blessed Maid!

public domainfor solo voice / unison choir and organ

year of composition / 1st publication: 1866


St. Alban John Keble (1792-1866) Composer: Saint Alban (?-c251) / traditional
aliases, aka: St Alban, St. Alban, St-Alban, St.-Alban
Country of origin / activity:  United Kingdom
Text author: John Keble (1792-1866), 1827  (St. Alban's Tune Book, 1866)
aliases, aka:
Country of origin / activity: United Kingdom
Arranger / Editor: N/A  Last name, First name  (s.a.), s.a.
aliases, aka:
Country of origin / activity:

in 1886 'St-Alban's Tune Book'

Available documentation:

Score: download by clicking on the picture to open full-size score + save to your computer.
St.-Alban / Keble - Ave Maria! Blessed Maid!

Lyrics: Source page: Ave Maria, blessed Maid!  
1. Ave Maria! blessed Maid!
Lily of Eden's fragrant shade!
Who can express the love
that nurtured thee, so pure and sweet,
making thy heart a shelter meet
for Jesus' holy Dove!
2. Ave Maria! Mother blest,
to whom, caressing and caressed,
clings the eternal Child;
favored beyond Archangels' dream,
when first on thee with tendered gleam
thy new-born Savior smiled
3. Thou wept'st meek Maiden, Mother mild,
thou wept'st upon thy sinless Child,
thy very heart was riven:
and yet, what mourning matron here
would deem thy sorrows bought too dear
by all on this side heaven!
4. A Son that never did amiss,
that never shamed his Mother's kiss,
nor crossed her fondest prayer:
e'en from the Tree he deigned to bow
for her his agonized brow,
her, his sole earthly care.
5. Ave Maria! thou whose name
all but adoring love may claim,
yet may we reach thy shrine;
for he, thy Son and Savior, vows
to crown all lowly lofty brows
with love and joy like thine. 
Words: John Keble (1792-1866)
Music: attributed to St. Alban (St. Alban's Tune Book, 1866)
Meter: 886 D

MIDI: MP3: not available
Play / stop MIDI
alt: Play midi St-Alban/Keble Ave Maria! Blessed Maid!
 

Recording:
not available  

Video - posted on YouTube:

Ave Maria! Blessed Maid! (The English Hymnal No. 216)

Internet references, biography information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Alban

Saint Alban was the first British Christian martyr.[1] Along with his fellow saints Julius and Aaron, Alban is one of three martyrs remembered from Roman Britain. Alban is listed in the Church of England calendar for 22 June and he continues to be venerated in the Anglican, Catholic and Orthodox Communions. St Alban is mentioned in "Acta Martyrum", and also by Constantius of Lyon in his Life of St Germanus of Auxerre, written about 480. He also appears in Gildas' 6th century polemic De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae and Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum.[2]
 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Keble

John Keble (25 April 1792 – 29 March 1866) was an English churchman and poet, one of the leaders of the Oxford Movement, and gave his name to Keble College, Oxford .../...


A dictionary of hymnology - edited by John Julian (1892) p.98-99.
Keble1Ave Maria blessed Maid - J. Keble.
(BVM) From his Poem for 'The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary' st 7

Keble2The original poem was written on the death of his mother June 1 1823.
This fact supplies the key to the line of thought in the opening stanza:
  Oh Those Who deign'st to sympathize
  With all our frail and fleshly ties
  Maker, yet Brother dear
  Forgive the too presumptuous thought
  If, calming wayward grief I sought
  To gaze on Thee too near
The poem as originally written was too personal for publication in the Christian Year, and in 1826 (dated March 9 1826) the four concluding stanzas were omitted and those beginning in that work "Ave Maria blessed Maid" to the end, were substituted and the poem in this its new form was first published therein in 1827. The original was included with a special note in his "Misc. Poems," 1869 pp.230-33, and the cento, as a hymn, in the appendix to the Hymnal N, 2nd ed. 1864 The People's H., 1867, No.192 and others.

Page last modified: August 17, 2013