Rachel's lament for her children

The Waverly Consort performs at the Cloisters every Christmas season, and a kind friend sees to it that we have tickets to one of the performances. We went yesterday afternoon, and we made sure to arrive early enough to walk around to get into a receptive mood.
The Cloisters is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, although not located anywhere near the Met if you're planning a visit. Here's a link to the Cloisters' official site, which will give you more information. Lots more.

Anyway, we drove uptown, the parking deities favored us, and we had a lovely wander before entering the chapel where the concert was to take place.

Perhaps the best known of the treasures housed at the Cloisters is a series of tapestries known as the Unicorn Tapestries.

The tapestries in turn are known, among other things, for their wonderful attention to detail. 

Look at the millefleurs background:

Some of the large candlesticks were decorated for Christmas, some weren't, and at least one didn't need any more decoration.


And then we filed in and took our seats for the concert, which was a performance of a centuries-old re-telling of the Christmas story, in sung narrative and carols. Unlike jolly school plays and church pageants, though, this play ends with the Slaughter of the Innocents, and the last principal song was a desolate and chilling soprano solo: Rachel's Lament For  Her Children. The song was in Latin, here is a translation of the first verse.

Alas, little babes,

such savage wounds we see!

Alas, sweet children,

slaughtered, butchered in madness.

Alas, neither pity

nor tender age could save you.

Alas, wretched mothers,

can we know what we behold here?

What, then, within us

can bear such deeds?

Alas, our memories

only double grief!

No more can we know joy:

our gifts of love have perished.

Noone could have seen this coming: the audience was overwhelmed. Tears, heads bowed into handkerchiefs, sobs, gasps. That song was written in the 12th century; it could have been written yesterday. The play ends with a Te Deum (hymn of triumph and gratitude), but Rachel's Lament will stay with us.

Great is the anguish of my soul;

my heart is troubled within me.