This week on Continuum we will be listening to vocal music that would have been heard at the Abbey of St. Mary's in Worcester, England in the late 13th century to early 14th century, which was under a Benedictine rule at that time. Much of the music, even prior to the 13th century, had been scrapped in preference for some newer music. Rather than throw that music away, it was used to bind some of the newer music and as a result, it was cut up into pieces. Those pieces of music have come down to us being restored from their book covers, and they're referred to as the Worcester Fragments. And fragments they are, because there are very few complete sections of the mass or complete sections of the daily services that were heard in this abbey. The performers in this recording are Trio Mediæval from Scandinavia.
CONTINUUM: The Worcester Fragments
