Ossuaires : voyage en Europe sur les traces de Villard /vol.1, office de Sainte Elisabeth

Description

In this first volume of a trilogy of recordings exploring the religious, social, and political aspects surrounding 13th-century music, Bjorn Schmelzer and Graindelavoix embark on a journey through Europe following the traces of the unclassifiable artist Villard de Honnecourt, whose journal contains a series of sketches connected to the new Gothic cathedrals then under construction. Villard's travels took him from Cambrai, Vaucelles, and Reims, and through Germany and Switzerland, to Hungary. In this first volume, Ossuaires, his itinerary establishes a connection between Northern France and Hungary. The musical treasures interpreted here focus on an Office of Saint Elizabeth composed by Pierre de Cambrai and on Volek syrolm thudothlon, an example of an ancient Hungarian poem sung to French music. The characteristic and imaginative way in which Bjorn Schmelzer and Graindelavoix approach this music departs from any preconceived notion of how, hypothetically, this music was sung at the time, and instead aligns with artists like Villard de Honnecourt (examples of his work are included in the booklet), medieval and modern, who ornament, improvise, assemble, and recycle their materials from a practical perspective.