| A Feather on the Breath of God | |
| Type: | cover |
| Artist: | Gothic Voices |
| Cover: | A Feather on the Breath of God.jpg |
| Released: | 1982 |
| Recorded: | St Jude's Church, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, 14 September 1981 |
| Genre: | Sacred vocal music, plainchant, early music |
| Length: | 44:03 |
| Label: | Hyperion Records |
| Producer: | Martin Compton |
| Next Title: | The Garden of Zephirus |
| Next Year: | 1985 |
A Feather on the Breath of God is an album of sacred vocal music written in the 12th century by the German abbess Hildegard of Bingen, and recorded by British vocal ensemble Gothic Voices with English soprano Emma Kirkby. It was released by the Hyperion Records label in 1982.[1]
It was recorded in St. Jude's Church, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, on 14 September 1981.[2] The music and Latin texts are from a contemporary medieval manuscript (Wiesbaden, Hessische Landesbibliothek M52) edited by Dr. Christopher Page, who also directed the recorded performance itself.[3]
It is an album of early medieval plainchant of which the title is taken from a passage in Hildegard's writings in which she describes herself:
Listen: there was once a king sitting on his throne. Around him stood great and wonderfully beautiful columns ornamented with ivory, bearing the banners of the king with great honour. Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground and he commanded it to fly. The feather flew, not because of anything in itself but because the air bore it along. Thus am I '"A feather on the breath of God."[4]
The album received the Early-Medieval Gramophone Award for 1982–1983.[5]
In 2020, the album was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[6]
The recording of "O Euchari" was sampled on "The Sun Rising" by The Beloved, and "Belfast" by Orbital.
All compositions (sequences and hymns) written by Hildegard of Bingen.