PROVENCE MYSTIQUE or THE MINSTRELS OF GOD:

PROVENCE MYSTIQUE
or
THE MINSTRELS OF GOD:

SACRED SONGS OF THE MIDDLE AGES

The French media review Télérama has given its highest rating ffff to this Erato CD by Camerata's Anne Azéma and friends. Quoth the Télérama reviewer:

"The performance by Anne Azéma and her associates is seductive. The voices are beautiful and generous, with just the right touch of sensuality and warmth that has for too long been absent in this kind of ensemble; the instrumentation is ingenious."

Provence Mystique, a compelling and beautiful program of sacred songs from medieval France and Spain, is now available as well in the United States.


		1. Audi Homo: Audi Tellus - Anne Azema
		2. Lo Frugz De Saber: Clara Sonent Organa - Shira Kammen/Margriet Tindemans/Anne Azema/Laurence Brisset/Annelies Coene/Catherine Joussellin
		3. Lo Frugz De Saber: Ar Levatz Sus, Francha Corteza Gens! - Anne Azema/Kit Higginson/Martriet Tindemans
		4. Lo Frugz De Saber: Planctus Beate Marie: Tantost Com Fon Al Loc Vengutz - Anne Azema
		5. Lo Frugz De Saber: Vexilla Regis - Laurence Brisset/Annelies Coene/Catherine Joussellin/Pasquale Mourey
		6. Lo Frugz De Saber: Dels Quatre Caps Que A La Cros - Anne Azema/Margriet Tindemans
		7. Lo Frugz De Saber: Verbum Patris Humanatur - Anne Azema/Laurence Brisset/Annelies Coene/Catherine Joussellin/Pasquale Mourey/Kit Higginson...
		8. Roma Trichairitz: D'un Sirventes Far - Anne Azema/Shira Kammen
		9. Roma Trichairitz: Una Ciutatz Fo - Anne Azema/Kit Higginson/Shira Kammen/Margriet Tindemans
		10. Cum Melodis Organo: Planctus Beate Marie: Dona, Maire Del Salvador - Anne Azema
		11. Cum Melodis Organo: Flore Vernans Gratie - Anne Azema
		12. Cum Melodis Organo: Cantiga De Santa Maria 363: En Bon Ponto - Anne Azema/Laurence Brisset/Annelies Coene/Catherine Joussellin/Pasquale Mourey/Kit Higginson...
		13. Cum Melodis Organo: Gregis Pastor Tityrus - Anne Azema/Laurence Brisset/Annelies Coene/Catherine Joussellin/Pasquale Mourey/Kit Higginson...

I AUDI HOMO

Audi tellus Anonymous

II LO FRUGZ DE SABER

Ar levatz sus, francha corteza gens ! Text: Peire Espanhol (12th century)

Music: after Gaucelm Faidit (c.1150-c.1220)

Clara sonent organa Anonymous, Aquitanian

Tantost com fon al loc vengutz Anonymous: Planctus Beate Marie
Provençal, 13th century

Vexilla Regis Text: Venance Fortunat (?-609)

Music: Gregorian chant

Dels quatre caps que a la cros Text: Peire Cardenal (c.1180-c.1278)

Music: Jaufré Rudel (c.1125-c.1148)

III ROMA TRICHAIRITZ

D'un sirventes far Text: Guilhem Figueira (c.1215-c.1240)

Music: after Peire Vidal (active 1180-1205)

Una ciutatz fo Text : Peire Cardenal

Music based on Cantiga de Santa Maria 45
attrib. to Alfonso el Sabio (1221-1284)

IV CUM MELODIS ORGANO

Dona, Maire del salvador Anonymous, Planctus Beate Marie

Provençal, 13th century

Flore vernans gratie Anonymous, Aquitanian

En bon ponto Cantiga de Santa Maria 363

attrib. to Alfonso el Sabio

Gregis pastor Tityrus Anonymous, Aquitanian

Program devised by Anne Azéma

Transcritions and editions: Anne Azéma, Joel Cohen, Leo Treitler

Creation and elaboration of instrumental parts: Robert Mealy, Kit Higginson, Margriet Tindemans

This program is an Erato CD, number 3484-25503-2

PROVENCE MYSTIQUE, OR THE MINSTRELS OF GOD

Shira Kammen, Laurence Brisset, Catherine Jousselin, Anne Azéma, Pasquale
Mourey, Anneliese Coene and Margriet Tindemans in the Cloister of The Abbey
of St Guilhem le Désert, France, where this CD was taped.

PROGRAM NOTES

"I know a great many stories: the story of Merlin, of the death of King Arthur, of Tristan and Isolde, stories about lovers and great lords. I also know how to sing well in the service of the Holy Church: how to ‘triple’ the Sanctus and the Agnus in counterpoint, how to intone the saeculorum And I know my profession well – how to sing chansons, make good poetry, write pastourelles, rotrouenges and dances. And all kinds of people are grateful to me for this. The Lord God allows me to accomplish many things that will earn me salvation at the Day of Judgement."

This inventory of the talents of Peire de Corbiac (Lo tezaurs -13th c. ) gives us a glimpse of the kinds of activity which the minstrel-troubadours of the Middle Ages would have been expected to perform. These activities ranged from that of story-teller and poet to musician, improviser and entertainer; and their sphere of activity encompassed different milieux, ranging from the world of the court and courtly love to the liturgical and spiritual world of the Church. Our program brings together texts and music which might have formed part of the repertoire of some of these minstrel-troubadours. None of the pieces belongs to the liturgy of the Mass itself, but all of them deal with the relations between God and man, and the theme of human destiny.

The region now referred to as the south of France was in the Middle Ages known as Proenza (that is, Provence), and was truly a crucible of creative activity that was to change for ever the relationship between men and women, and between Man and the Creator. There, the musician-poets known as Troubadours sang songs of many different kinds composed in different poetic idioms and stylistic registers. They were written and performed in the vernacular (termed a vulgar tongue to distinguish it from clerical and learned Latin), now known by the modern names of Occitan, or Provençal. Their songs expressed their love for an earthly Lady, distant, inaccessible, deeply loved and a loyal friend, revered and feared. But a part of their repertoire was also devoted, in the same language, with often the same images and in the same forms, to their spiritual life . For the first time in the history of Western music and of non-Latin literature, the skill of the greatest poets was placed at the service of Christian praise and anguish in the contemplation of human destiny.

Tonight we will present differents aspects of this contemplation. Some of our songs reflect upon the fear of the end of of the world and the final judgement - oh so akin to our recently marketed First Night anxiety (Audi Tellus). Some reflect the sunny hope offered by the Virgin Mary, intermediary between God and Man (Ar Levatz sus). Others sing of the strength of the cross and its fundamental meaning that is, the redemption of the fall of Adam, who tasted the forbidden fruit. The cross then becomes in its turn the "Fruit of true knowledge" (Dels quatre caps que a la crotz). We will also celebrate the incarnation of the Word made flesh (Flore vernans gratie, Verbum patris) and the coming of Christ, as the shepherd Tityrus, the so-called "ass of God", carrying redemption in his saddlebag (Gregis pastor). Processional and paraliturgical music of this kind (that is, for musical activities performed outside of the Mass itself) was widespread among the Aquitanian monasteries and abbeys.

Most striking perhaps, is the very strong dissatisfaction expressed by some of these troubadours. Born of a climate of real tension in regard to the institutional priestly caste, two of the pieces on our second half testify to this critical spirit. The discourse of Guilhem Figueira, does not mince words on the "betrayal" of Rome (D'un sirventes far). And the moralizing parable of Peire Cardenal on the state of the world and the condition of Man estranged from the love of God is one of the most striking texts in this entire repertory (Una ciutatz fo). Despite the efforts of some commentators, it is quite hard to establish whether these troubadours were in fact implicated in the Cathar movement (considered sacrilegious and heretical by Rome and was made the object of a Crusade in 1208). It is however certain that their vision of the world and the outrages of Rome rest on historical facts, and in particular the massacre of the entire town of Béziers, which was instigated by Rome with the help of the Cistercian order under its abbot Arnaud Amauri on 22 July 1209.

These tensions found echos even in a neighbouring repertory from the Iberian peninsula, written in Galician, the Cantigas de Santa Maria, a collection of songs in honour of the Virgin compiled for King Alfonso X the Wise (1221-1284). Here (En bon ponto) we find a poor troubadour thrown into a dungeon for singing of the wrongdoings of Count Simon de Montfort. Count Simon was no legend but an authentic historical figure, the military commander of the same crusades sent by Rome against the Cathars. To this day his name is anathema in many circles in Southern France. In our story, the Virgin, recognizing one of her own people, and rewarding those who sing her praise, restores the unjustly imprisoned Gascon troubadour to liberty.

In attempting to follow the traces of Pierre de Corbiac, we have devised our own instrumental performance material, basing it on pre-existant vocal sources, and drawing on medieval learning methods (embracing such aspects as performance from memory, improvisation, knowledge of rhetoric). The troubadours, minstrels, clerics and nuns of the Occitan-speaking regions sang and played with a lively spirituality, describing the corruption of worldly power, their anguish in the face of death and the Last Judgement, but also celebrating the new dawn, lo jor clars et luzens: a bright and shining day.

Anne Azéma

Translation: Philip Weller