Saturday, May 14, 2011

Peter Abelard, Rock God

Just for fun, I am posting a link to Youtube. It is a song or, rather a hymn, written by Peter Abelard. I have it on my iPod along with The BeeGees and Lady Gaga because I am a complicated gal. Abelard also wrote love songs which were popular among Parisians. Unfortunately, we don't have any of those but we do have this hymn that he wrote for Heloise after she became a nun so she would have something to sing on a Saturday night when everyone else was down at the pub singing the other songs. Just kidding. He did write this hymn for Heloise while she was abbess of a convent that he set up for her.
In spite of it being over 800 years old, it still has a certain charm. Lennon and McCartney have a long way to go to catch up with him. I think if he was alive today, he would be a rock star like Amadeus.
Here it is: Quanta Qualia

4 comments:

Anachronist said...

A song of haunted beauty. He would be famous and rich but, I suppose, not exactly happy. Not with Heloise being in the covent anyway.

Tracy said...

And not after he was castrated, either, anachronist!

Anachronist said...

Right, I've forgotten about that...poor Abelard.

The Red Witch said...

Remember as patron of La Paraclete, he had to visit it several times a year. So in spite of the letters, they did actually see each other quite often.
But he didn't get over his mutilation.