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Les jeux liturgiques étaient faits pour être vécus, c'était une façon de s'exercer à être; de s'initier à la portée transcendante de l'histoire. Ils proposaient aux spectateurs comme aux acteurs d'entrer dans la densité réelle de la fête, de la renouveler chaque année. Le jeu des TROIS MARIE a ceci de aptivant qu'il est inclus dans un «coutumier» et non dans un processionnal comme le sont la plupart des jeux. On sait donc exactement: - pour quel lieu ce jeu a été conçu: un monastère royal de femmes, fondé par Hermantrude, première femme de Charles le Chauve (9e siècle), dont les offices étaient desservis par des chanoines, ce qui a autorisé la juxtaposition de voix d'hommes et de femmes dans ce jeu. - à quel moment précis de l'office il se plaçait : "et doit-on faire les Marie la nuit de Pâques, entre le derrain (dernier) respons et Te Deum Laudamus", ce qui est d'usage courant pour les jeux. - de quelle manière les participants se préparaient et quelles coutumes locales accompagnaient les offices des jours précédents et suivants. Les indications de jeu sont données en «francien» ce qui est unique par rapport à tous les manuscrits connus et qui laisse penser que les dames de l'abbaye ne «pratiquaient» pas le latin en dehors des offices.

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Mediterránea es un grupo musical dedicado al estudio e interpretación de la música y el arte de las antiguas culturas del Mediterráneo. Transcriben manuscritos, se inspiran en las tradiciones orales y arreglan e instrumentan las piezas musicales. Su primer trabajo discográfico es Soñando al-Andalus, un recorrido musical por el universo sonoro de las tres culturas que convivieron en al-Andalus medieval. Melodías eternas, instrumentos antiguos o propios del folklore de los pueblos del Mediterráneo, ritmos orientales...

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This disc was made in 1983, just when a remarkable change had taken place in the performance of medieval music, at least in Britain. For some years various musicologists had been saying that they could see no evidence for performing the secular song repertory from before 1480 with instrumental accompaniment; but it was only in 1981 and 1982 that Christopher Page, with his ensemble Gothic Voices, had produced recordings as plain audible evidence that the music of the fourteenth century sounded in many ways better if performed entirely by solo voices, with no instruments involved. While Page at this point confined his efforts mainly to the music of the fourteenth century, the Medieval Ensemble of London now did the same for songs of the midfifteenth century. Without going into the arguments for the rejection of instrumental accompaniment, it is perhaps worth saying that, without their input, for the first time the polyphony was easily heard: the voices all function in the same way, while at the same time being all distinctive and therefore easy for the ear to isolate; and on this particular disc the first disturbing moment comes in the fourth track (Myn hertis lust), where the use of a lute on the third line - before then an absolutely routine procedure - suddenly makes the music sound more confused and less eloquent. But one of the true glories of this disc is the way that everything is perfectly balanced, with the lower voices always letting the "tune" through but at the same time always being absolutely clear to the ear. It is just one example of why the Medieval Ensemble of London enjoyed such a critical success in the mere five years of its recording career (1981-85). -- David Fallows

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Ο οσιολογιώτατος Ιερομόναχος Ιερόθεος Τσονάκας κατάγεται εκ Πατρών Αχαιας, μονάζει εις την Ιεράν Μονήν Φιλοθέου Αγ. Ορους από του 1974. Υπηρετει τήν Βυζαντινήν Μουσικήν Τέχνην και καταγράφει τήν Βνζαντινήν Μουσικήν Παράδοσιν και μάλιστα τήν Αγιορειτικήν. Καρπός αυτής της Διακονίας είναι η συγγραφή καί η έκδοσις της γνωστής δωδεκατόμου σειράς: «ΑΘΩΝΙΚΗ ΜΟΥΣΙΚΗ ΑΝΘΟΔΕΣΜΗ». Η απόδοσις των βυζαντινών `Υμνων του παρόντος CD αποτελεί προσωπικήν επιλογήν του 'Ιδίου εκ προηγουμένων ηχογραφήσεων. Ο οσιολογιώτατος 'Ιερομ. 'Ιερόθεος συνεχίζει την Διακονία του εις τόν χώρον τής Βυζαντινής Μουσικής Τέχνης μέ τήν χάριν του Θεού xαί τής Εφόρου του 'Αγίου 'Ορους Κυρίας Θεοτόκον.

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This is my first concert recording, made in Pavia, Italy, church of S. Teodoro, october 1989. Schoeps microphones, Schoeps VMS-52 mic preamp, DAT Casio DA-2

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Histoire d'un homme inconscient dont l'âme quitte le corps, La Vision de Tondal fut l'un des textes visionnaires les plus populaires du XIIe siècle, comme une préméditation pour la Divina commedia de Dante. Dans cet étrange récit, l'âme du chevalier Tondal visite un espace inconnu, guidée par son ange, se perd sur des chemins, traverse des ponts dans l'obscurité, observe et subit les tourments des âmes, invoque son ange et pleure en voulant mourir, sans pouvoir mourir... Lorsque Tondal se sent envahi par une bonté et une lumière inconnues, il s'incline devant un trône d'or, mystérieusement vide. Ce voyage initiatique au-delà de la mort n'aura duré qu'un «clin de nuit». A regret, son «âme éclairée» rejoint son «corps sombre». En revenant, transfisuré, il entend les voix de ceux qui l'ont veillé pendant son parcours intérieur. Musicalement, ce projet est un travail de reconsuuction: la connaissance des manuscrits grégoriens, bénéventains et glagolitiques de la Dalmatie médiévale, ainsi que l'étude du répertoire glagolitique dans la tradition orale, ont guidé mes recherches dans la réalisation musicale de ce programme. Le texte de la Vision ne conserve pas de musique, mais il se réfère à des textes liturgiques chantés. Mon travail fut de trouver dans les sources musicales proches (dalmates et italiennes méridionales) des pièces qui correspondaient aux citations bibliques du texte original.

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The music of Ancient and Medieval Ireland has been all but lost except for a few strange and beautiful fragments. The idea of ANÚNA grew from their founder and director Michael McGlynn's exploration of this music which is at the very root of the Celtic world, both past and present. The soundworld created by ANÚNA breaks down the thin barriers between the spiritual and the secular, and has created a unique and haunting form that has put the group at the forefront of thc new-age of Irish and world music. The name ANÚNA is derived from the Irish An Uaithne, which is the collective name of the three ancient types of Irish music, Suantraí (lullaby), Geantraí (happy song) and Goltraí (lament).

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St. Francis urged his followers to "go through the world preaching and praising God, ... first one of them who knew how to preach should preach to the people and that after the sermon they were to sing the praises of God [laudes domini] as minstrels of the Lord [joculatores Dei]". This little Franciscan vignette conveys the new world of religious thought and feeling that would transform western religious practice in the burgeoning cities of medieval Europe: an active ministry that embraced the secular realm of urban laity, a vigorous new preaching style characterized by spontaneity and directness of expression, and an affective devotional environment that melded sermon, prayer, and song. The fate of this Franciscan legacy in the following centuries as it was adapted, extended, refined, reformed, institutionalized, and appropriated by clergy, laity, and other mendicant orders, is traced in the great textual and musical variety of the works included on this disk.

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The uniqueness of this copious manuscript lies not only in its overall lavish presentation, its precious miniatures and its generous use of gilding. More than anything, it possesses peculiarities that are not to be found in any other musical manuscript of the 14th and 15th centuries, and that shed a spectacular light on Florentine musical culture. It was most likely manufactured between 1410 and 1415 in the monastery of S. Maria degli Angeli, a convent that was founded around 1300 and for which Filippo Brunelleschi had started a new church around this same time. The vast Codex only contains secular works (227 ballate, 115 madrigals, 12 cacce) by 14 composers that all worked permanently or at least intermittently in Florence. It is strictly arranged according to composer, and chronologically: the oldest, Giovanni da Cascia at the beginning, the youngest, Andrea de Florentia at the end. The last section of the manuscript is dedicated to Jovannes Horganista de Florentia, but contains no entries.

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A notable manuscript from the late 15th century, housed today in Naples, contains a cycle of six cantus firmus masses all based on the chanson L'homme armé which can be regarded as a treatise on polyphonic composition as well as providing even more examples of masses based on this ubiquitous theme.Whilst surviving virtually complete the Naples manuscript has alas been shorn of its rich illuminations, losing along the way the identity of the composer of this unparalleled masterpiece from the late 15th century, although some scholars are inclined to believe that it was Antoine Busnois, a leading musical figure at the Burgundian Court of duke Charles the Bold, but whose compositional output remains little-recorded. Armed with their own artistic insights and detective work and an unfailing grasp of the musical language of the 15th- century (witness their three discs of music by Guillaume Dufay on Glossa and the more recent a capella Stella del nostro mar album) Giuseppe Maletto and the musicians of Cantica Symphonia unlock the enigma of these L'homme armé masses, unveiling a real treasure of an early Renaissance musical masterpiece. A full performance of the sixth Mass is interspersed with fragment, played instrumentally, from the preceding five and complemented by a contemporary Magnificat setting.

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The sound of medieval English music was always distinctive. It attracted wide attention in the early 15th century, the period of John Dunstaple and his many talented contemporaries, and was one of this country's major cultural exports. Indeed, Dunstaple was the most influential English composer outside England before the Beatles. He is almost the only English composer named by continental authorities such as the poet Martin le Franc and the music theorist Tinctoris, and his name continued to be invoked long after his music had fallen out of fashion.

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The songs of the trouvères form an astonishing corpus of poems and melodies, clearly defined and classified, abundantly explored and studied by musicologists for more than a century, but still very little performed ... ... The corpus is contained in twenty-two chansonniers (large collections of chansons), of which 18 have the music either in its entirety or more often partially. Some of these chansonniers are beautiful presentation copies destined for the courts of the high nobility ... ... Our programme presents some of the jewels of the corpus of chansons that reflect courtly love, using interpretation techniques that we consider to be close to those of the trouvères themselves: a cappella or accompanied by a single instrument close to the monodic material of the singer's melode, with a flexible enunciation of the words in an attempt to respect as faithfully as possible the versification and pronunciation of the superb langue d'oïl, that young, vigorous language which is the forerunner of modern French.

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...Notre programme est très intimement lié à un bâtiment prestigieux et relativement bien conservé: le Palais des Papes, construit principalement par Benoît XII et Clément VI, et notamment la chapelle St Pierre (chapelle "Clémentine") dans laquelle se concentrèrent toutes les liturgies solennelle... ... Il est difficile pour les chanteurs que nous sommes de déterminer avec précision un type d'interprétation de la monodie grégorienne de la fin du Moyen Age. Malgré une certaine continuité, la pratique du plain-chant a varié au cours des siècles. Rythmiquement, le chant a tendance à s'égaliser peut-être dès la fin du XIIe siècle, sous l'influence de la réforme cistercienne. Mais quel "tempo" choisir? Si le rythme de la musique mesurée ralentit sensiblement aux XIII et Xlve siècles, Stephen Van Dijk pense qu'au contraire l'interprétation du plain-chant est un peu plus rapide à la fin du Moyen Age, sous l'influence des frères prêcheurs qui veulent consacrer plus de temps aux études et aux prédications, et moins aux offices divins...

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