The music of ordinary people who once prayed and sang as an integral part of their daily lives has disappeared almost without trace. Until fairly recent times, the ability to write was the privilage of the ruling classes, with the result that manuscripts handed down to us are of music for the cultural of religious élite, providing few clues as to what went on in the wider world of popular music.
This recording attempts to show an unfamiliar aspect of the 14th and 15th century Italian sacred music known to the modern musicologist as simple polyphony. Although conceived, for the most part, in educated circles, simple polyphony possesses qualities of directness, clarity of expression and intensity of feeling associated more with popular music than official culture.
Taking as their starting point their knowledge of ethnic music as it is performed in Italy today, Acantus worked backwards in time searching for evidence of the music and how it might have been performed. They made direct use of medieval notation taken from copies of the few original manuscripts available. Where the music lent itself, they adopted a vocal style limilar to that which can still be heard in those regions of Italy where the oral tradition of sacred and secular music is still alive. The same criteria were also applied in their choice of instruments and performing techniques.
The music recorded on this disc would have been heard in the Italy of the Middle Ages in church or other places of public or private worship.
It may be devided into two categories: liturgical and paraliturgical.
The liturgical works concists of pieces written for the Mass, the Devine Office or for other formal acts of worship.
The paraliturgical works, which embrace a variety of styles, were performed in lay confraternities, convents, monasteries and chapels, as well as in small aristocratic courts, sometimes led by expert musicians.
Simple polyphony has its roots in Gregorian chant. At the end of the 13th century in Italy, there came into being a polyphonic style known as
cantus planus binatim which fully respected the performance and melodic expression of chant.
An example of a liturgical work is the hymn
O crux fructus
Among all the pieces from this early repertoire, the devotional song
Quasi cedrus, from Ceriana in Liguria, stands out as an example of true chant which has survived to the present day through oral tradition. It demonstrates that sometimes the musical ideas of the Middle Ages can survive into our own age. This is a paraliturgical work.
This is the disc:
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18-01-09, 09:05 PM
Acantus sings the music of ordinary people
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