Adam Lay Ybounden

"Adam Lay Ybounden", alternatively titled "Deo Gracias", is a 15th Century English text of unknown authorship, found in the Sloane Manuscript 2593. It is believed by the British Library to have belonged to a wandering minstrel.

Text

Adam lay ybounden,
Bounden in a bond;
Four thousand winter,
Thought he not too long.

And all was for an apple,
An apple that he took.
As clerkes finden,
Written in their book.

Ne had the apple taken been,
The apple taken been,
Ne had never our ladie,
Abeen heav'ne queen.

Blessed be the time
That apple taken was,
Therefore we moun singen.
"Deo gracias!"

Subject

"Adam Lay Ybounden" relates the events of Genesis, Chapter 3, namely the Fall of Man following Adam's temptation by Eve and the serpent. The third verse suggests the subsequent redemption of man by the birth of Jesus by Mary. (see felix culpa)

Settings

There are many notable choral settings of the text, with diverse interpretations by several English composers, including Peter Warlock, John Ireland, Philip Ledger and Benjamin Britten (titled "Deo Gracias" in his "Ceremony of Carols"). However, Boris Ord's setting is generally regarded as the best-known version, due in no small part to its traditional performance following the First Lesson at the annual Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at the chapel of King's College, Cambridge, where Ord was sometime organist.

External links

* [http://www.christmas-songs.org/songs/adam_lay_ybounden.html MIDI file of Adam Lay Ybounden, music by William Smarte] (not a setting listed in the article)