Harris, Lillie - Margaret

SATB unaccompanied (with divisions)

Much of the text for this piece is taken from a seventeenth-century memorial found in the church of St Mary the Virgin in Lewisham, south London, preserving the name of an otherwise unknown woman called Margaret who died in 1643. The additional words – meadow-dwelling medica – are my own, with a play on the original meaning of Lewisham – dwelling in the meadows – and borrowing the term medica, describing a woman doctor, from the Record of Deeds of thirteenth-century Leominster in Herefordshire.

Discovering this inscription gave me a powerful sense of connection between the past and the present, almost as if Margaret were a modern woman out of time. She seemed strong and capable, generous and respected in her community. The fact that her second husband was pastor of Lewisham is perhaps the only reason we know of her, and I wondered how many more ‘Margarets’ are out there, lost to history. Not many will have merited a memorial, let alone a costly one chiselled in stone; yet without such a record we can never know.

Margaret is therefore composed in a deliberately hymn-like style in order to reflect not only her close relationship with the church, but also to express my own sense of reverence for her. She was both ordinary and remarkable: a seventeenth-century female medical professional; I hope my piece is a fitting tribute to her memory.

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