Guillaume Dufay - Ave Maris Stella

- Composer: Guillaume Dufay (Du Fay, Du Fayt) (5 August 1397(?) -- 27 November 1474) - Ensemble: Pomerium - Conductor: Alexander Blachly - Year of recording: 1998 Ave Maris Stella (“Hail, star of the ocean“), hymn for 3 voices, written c. 1440. Twelfth century Cistercian mystic Bernard of Clairvaux passionately explored new symbols for the beauty of the Virgin Mary. He called her portal of heaven, the vessel for the coming of Christ, and simultaneously the gateway for mankind’s ascension. He read her name, Maria, as maris stell (star of the sea). His graceful exegesis of her name led to a mistaken attribution to Bernard of the Vesper hymn to the Virgin Mary, Ave maris stella. In fact, the hymn predates Bernard of Clairvaux by centuries. However, the luscious Latin of this hymn, from its opening “Ave“ which echoes the greeting of the Angel Gabriel, through its series of petitions to Mary the mediatrix of sinners eloquently fits Bernard’s devotion to the Virgin. Similarly, by the dawn of the Renaissance, the