Kyrie: Orbis Factor, medieval chant of the Gradual of Eleanor of Brittany (Lyric Video)

This is an intriguing record, illustrating some aspects of the musical life of a community of Benedictine nuns in the great French double monastery of Fontevrault, an early medieval royal foundation. In 1304, Eleanor of Brittany became its sixteenth Abbess, having been trained as a nun in the English daughter house of Amesbury. The Gradual that bears her arms contains, in addition to the normal chant repertoire, a special repertoire of its own (not, as mistranslated in the notes, ''a repertory of the Proper'' which, in any case, was already there). It is this collection of miscellaneous pieces that throw a special light on the musical life of these nuns. Some items were undoubtedly intended to embellish parts of the liturgy itself on high feast days; others