O Mistério de Santa Inês

 O Mistério de Santa Inês 

Ensemble Cantilena Antiqua - Stefano Albarello / Aines - Mistero provenzale medioevale
 

The Mystery of St. Agnes is preserved in the manuscript, Chigi C.V. 151 .... datable to the end the fourteenth Century or beginning of fifteenth Century. ... On the whole, the Mystery poses many questions; its basic language is certainly provençal ... it seems possible for this source to be a collage of various versions from different periods ... And there is the question of the difference in age between the transcription of the text and the presumed dating of certain melodies, creating a gap of several centuries - a rather enigmatic case of the survival of troubadour melodies! ... In reading the story it becomes immediately clear that the theme is in keeping with a symbol dear to the courtly tradition, Love; ... One reason the musical part of this play is so deserving of attention is undoubtedly because these melodies are so precious, being almost all unica. Except for the melodies taken from Gregorian chant ..., almost all the other melodies are contrafacta of the troubadour repertory ... In order to render more dramatic certain points in the story, we have added compositions taken from the romance tradition of the same period and having appropriate thematic material and style to the Provençal Mystery. The pieces are Amor m'ard (anonymous) ... [and three] ... by Guiraut Riquier.

Stefano Albarello

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