Search - La Reverdie :: O Tu Chara Scienca - La musique dans la Pensée Médiévale

Brilliant Performance

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 02/11/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"O tu chara scienca. Music of Medieval Thought. La Reverdie: Claudia Caffagni, lute, voice and percussion; Livia Caffagni, recorders, vielle, voice; Elisabetta de' Mircovich, voice, symphonia, rebec, harp; Ella de Mircovich, voice, harp, lyre, symphonia; Doron David Sherwin, voice, muted cornet, percussion. Recorded at the Grand Auditorium in Nantes, France, in July 1993. Producer: Michel Bernstein. Released in 1993 as Arcana A29. Total time: 73'20".



If I am correctly informed, this was the fourth CD to be produced by the La Reverdie team, and to my mind it is their best, having a number of remarkable qualities to recommend it. First, there is the whole concept of the album. The whole is placed under the motto, "Musica ad omnia se extendit" (Isidoro di Siviglia) and then divided up into three sections: Musica terrestris (a term coined by the Venerable Bede); Ars musica; and Laudatio Dei. The first section contains songs describing natural phenomena such as hunting songs and imitation of birdsong; the second contains songs with texts reflecting on the nature of music itself; and the third contains religious songs from the 7th to the 14th centuries. All the material has been carefully culled from European libraries, most of the pieces appear to be available only in manuscript.



Secondly, there is the superb documentation, with an excellent essay by Nino Pirrotta in four languages and the texts of the songs printed in the original languages plus, where necessary, translations into Italian, French, German and English.



Thirdly, there is the brilliant performance of music which often sounds more like avant-garde than anything ancient. The five musicians involved play copies of medieval instruments in greatly varying combinations, and the resulting sound is absolutely beautiful. The deliberately uncultured voices singing both solo and together make for an aesthetic experience that fully justifies the philosophical aura cast by the title and cover.



Fourthly, there is the absolutely first-class engineering which makes listening to this CD on good equipment a real pleasure, at least if you have ears for this highly unusual, even esoteric music.



It may be difficult to get hold of a copy of this CD, but if you are a fan of medieval music I can only say that it is worth all the effort you may have to invest."