Getty Museum, MS Ludwig III 1 (83 MC 72( fol. 19v

Marienleich

Mon 24 March 2025

St Catharine's College

This unique collaboration between St Catharine’s College and Cambridge School of Visual and Performing Arts (CSVPA) brings together scholars, musicians, and artists to reimagine one of the most extraordinary works of medieval German literature — Marienleich by Heinrich of Meißen (known as Frauenlob). Written around 1300, this visionary poem gives voice to the Virgin Mary herself, as she speaks in the first person in a lyrical act of self-praise — a moment unprecedented in medieval Marian poetry.
Inspired by the current research of Dr Simone Kuegeler-Race, Senior Academic at the University of Münster and Affiliated Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, the event will take place within a special service for the Feast of the Annunciation in St Catharine’s College Chapel. Led by Dr Edward Wickham, Director of Music, the College's Girls' Choir will perform sections of the original medieval score, while CSVPA music students create new interpretations blending spoken word, electronics, and improvisation.
The performance will be accompanied by a backdrop of unique projections and large-scale drawings by CSVPA’s visual arts students on the themes of voice, wisdom, and vision, echoing Marienleich’s portrayal of Mary as both mother and personified Wisdom — a connection reflected in St Catharine’s Chapel’s stained glass window Wisdom’s Call by Tom Denny.
Additional student artworks inspired by the Marienleich and the Wisdom Window will be displayed throughout the day in the antechapel. There will also be a pre-concert talk by Dr Kuegeler-Race on Frauenlob and the Marienleich, exploring how this remarkable text allows Mary to “speak in her own voice.”

Cost: Free with retiring collection