Vocal and instrumental Galician-Portuguese music of the Middle Ages.

17 MP3 Songs in this album (63:51) !
Related styles: CLASSICAL: Early Music, CLASSICAL: Medieval

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Details:
The Music
The Cantigas de Santa Maria form one of the great monuments of medieval music. Collected under the direction of Alfonso X (1221-1284), King of Castile and Leon, the Cantigas reflect both the influences of the French troubadours and the dynamic cultural and intellectual environment of the Spanish aristocratic court. The collection of over 400 songs is preserved in four manuscripts. Written in the Galician language, there are cantigas relating the miracles of the Virgin Mary, songs of pilgrimage, and folk parables. We have chosen to play some of these songs as purely instrumental melodies, while others include the words.
The 13th century Cantigas de amigo of martin Codax constitute the first real song cycle we have, there being both textual and musical material shared among the songs. The Cantigas are also our oldest surviving example of Galician-Portuguese secular music. The poems exist in two manuscripts without music. A third manuscript with music was discovered in 1914 in the binding of a 16th century book owned by a Madrid bookseller, Pedro Vindel.
The conductus Fontis in rivulum is from the Cisterian convent Las Huelgas. The late 13th century Codex contains 186 pieces in a wide variety of styles.
The Performers
Sonus is:
James Carrier: recorders, shawms, harp, saz, percussion
Hazel Ketchum: voice, saz, chitarra, percussion
John Holenko: oud, saz
Geoff Cormier: percussion
The Sonus ensemble was formed in 1988 by James Carrier to perform the secular music of the Middle Ages. Sonus has performed at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC, at the Tage Alter Musik festival in Regensburg, Germany, as well as throughout the US. Sonus has recorded three CDâs of Medeival music and had editions published by Mel Bay Publications. The German publication Alte Musik Aktuell called the groups sound âlively music making at its bestâ¦mature, accomplished.â CD Review gave Sonusâ debut recording, Songs and Dances of the Middle Ages, a four star performance rating, citing the âpleasing natural soprano of Hazel Ketchumâ and their âfetchingly unaffected delivery.â Guitar Player magazine called their second CD, Chanterai: Music of Medieval Franceâ, a âravishing collectionthat will delight both early music connoisseurs and open minded acoustic music fans.â