Luogo e data di registrazione		Chapel of Cistercian Abdij Marienlof (Belgium) - 9/11 October 1992
	Registrazione: live / studio		studio
	Producer / Recording supervisor		Wolf Erichson
	Recording engineer / editing		Stephan Schellmann (Tritonus)
	Prima Edizione LP		-
	Prima Edizione CD		Sony / Vivarte - SK 53 341 - (1 CD) - durata 55' 59" - (p) 1993 - DDD
	Cover Art		Altar frontal from Avia - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
	Note		-

In 1098 a new monastic order was founded in a monastery not far from Dijon. The new movement wanted to return to a monastic way of life which was based upon the strict rules of the Benedictine order; it established itself first at Citeaux. The name of the order was derived from the Latin name of the abbey, Cistercium; it was known as the Cistercian order. The movement soon flourished, and towards the end of the 12th century there were over 500 Cistercian monasteries and establishments all over Europe. The Cistercian order advocated more simplicity and a less elaborate liturgy and demanded more physical work from its members. This simplicity also had an effect on Cistercian art. In architecture, for example, strict rules were applied in which Gothic lines, use alone and without much ornamentation, created a quiet impression in a building. In the decorative arts, too - for example in book illustrations - all superfluousness was avoided. This tendency can also be established in the field of music. As early as the 12th century the Cistercians were searching for the original melodies of Gregorian chant. Monks were sent to Metz to copy the Antiphonarium gregorianum. Then this work was corrected and simplified according to the rules of the handbook written in 1140, Epistola seu tractatus de cantu seu de correctione Antiphonarii. Melismas were shortened, repeats omitted, authentic and plagal modes clearly distinguished from one another. In addition all melodies were kept within a range of 10 notes (in psalterio decachordo psallam tibi). In the course of the 13th and 14th centuries, however, the idea of simplicity gradually retreated into the background, as often happens with trends, the ideas of which become watered-down to the same extent as they spread spatially and temporally and become removed from their original source. This was also to be the case with the architecture and music of the monastery of Las Huelgas. The first convent of the Cistercian order was founded in 1125 at Tart (in the diocese of Langres). This did not happen, however, without conflict: The male branch of the order was at first opposed to the expansion, for many convents achieved their own jurisdiction and led an independent existence. More than 50 years after the founding at Tart, one of the most famous Cistercian convents came into being in the Burgos region of Spain: the Real Monasterio de Las Huelgas. King Alfonso VIII of Castile built the convent in 1187 as a kind of Pantheon for the Castilian royal house. Kings were crowned and buried here, and peace treaties signed. Above all an abbey community lived here, consisting of sisters, girls of noble birth, who were directed by the nuns, a Schola cantorum and a Scriptorium. And soon the ideal of simplicity was abandoned again; under King Alfonso el Sabio (1226-1284) Las Huelgas developed into a cultural centre in which Jewish scholars and Mudejars (Moslems under Christian jurisdiction) lived with the Catholic population of the abbey under one roof. This cultural diversity also left its mark on the architectural style of the convent. Thus the eight-sided dome of the presbytery is identical with the dome of a minaret of the Kutubija mosque in Marrakesh; the Chapel of San Salvador in the convent is decorated with Mudejar inscriptions. Under King Alfonso el Sabio music flourished here too. In this convent one of the last music manuscripts from the Ars antiqua of the 13th century was written: the so-called Codex Las Huelgas. This manuscript is unique for various reasons. Firstly, the Codex Las Huelgas is the only music manuscript of its time which is still at its place of origin: it was written in Las Huelgas and is kept there today. Further, this collection allows in every respect a kaleidoscopic insight into the music of the Ars antiqua: it contains not only the “Evergreens” of the Paris Notre Dame school ( e. g. O Maria maris stella) but also Spanish compositions of local significance and works which were specially written for Las Huelgas. The Codex Las Huelgas contains many pieces of music which are not to be found in any other manuscript in the world. The repertoire extends from the end of the 12th to the beginning of the 14th century, with the emphasis placed on the music of the second half of the 13th century - it is no coincidence that this was the period in which King Alfonso el Sabio reigned. The comprehensive manuscript (170 folios) contains more than 180 liturgical and other sacred works, among them 141 polyphonic compositions. All forms and styles are represented: sections of the Mass (often as a trope, i. e. with interpolated text), conductus in one and more parts, Latin motets, sequences, settings of the Benedicamus domino, prosa (mostly strophic, such as Eya mater), Alleluias, laments (planctus), even exercises in solmisation. All these works are scored for 1 to 4 voices, although the more usual two and three-part settings predominate. The notation of most of the works displays a manifold use of ornaments. This is an aspect which to the present day has received too little attention. The Huelgas Ensemble attempts in this recording to integrate the longforgotten art of ornamentation into the compositions of the Ars antiqua - but there will be more about that later. The works on this recording Ex illustri is a conductus motet. Although the metre of the voices is regular, as is the case in most conductus pieces in several parts, two of the voices have differing texts, and that again gives the motet its character. The work displays another remarkable feature: as a great exception to the rule the rhythm here is binary, whereas the six rhythmic modes of the Ars antiqua are all ternary. Both texts are songs of praise to Saint Catherine (4th century), referring to her mystic marriage and her dreadful martyrdom. Casta catholica is also a conductus with two text, which, in contrast to Ex illustri, are subjected to considerable melismatic treatment. In addition hocket figures are used. The text refers to Doña Maréa Gonaáles, Abbess in Las Huelgas from 1286 till 1313. Crucifigat omnes was a very well-known conductus, which is to be found at five further sources. It is a militant Crusade song, which has survived in the Codex Las Huelgas in a two-part setting. Other sources contain a three-part version. The worship of the Virgin Mary was the focal point of the religious ceremonies at the convent of Las Huelgas. For this reason a conspicuously large number of works in the Codex are dedicated to Mary: Eya Mater is a monophonic prosa in refrain form, which is strongly reminiscent of the style of the Cantigas de Santa María, the pilgrim songs popular at the time. The work is a song of praise to Mary, and the initial letters of each third line form the acrostic Ave Maria. This work is to be found in no other manuscript. O Maria maris stella was perhaps one of the best-known Marian motets of the Ars antiqua. It is to be found in more than ten other sources and in the most diverse forms: in two, three and four parts, always with different combinations of text. The Codex Las Huelgas also contains various versions. Belial vocatur is known only from the Las Huelgas manuscript. It is a Marian motet, in the original version of which only one part is provided with a text. It tells of Candlemas (February 2nd) and of Jesus's appearance in the temple. With its lively style and its four-part setting this composition is one of the later ones in this manuscript. The composer makes use of various ornamented modes in alternation within the so-called “Aequipollentia” style (equality of the various strands of musical texture). The music is almost secular in feeling and is reminiscent of the words of Pope John XXII in his papal bull Docta Sanctorum patrum (1324), in which he distances himself from “modern” influences: “The church melodies are set in short note values and inundated with little notes. In addition the singers furnish the melodies with hockets; they brighten up the melodies with descants; they add duplum and triplum to the vocal line. They despise the basic model of the Antiphonarium and are no longer acquainted with it at all ...” Quis dabit capiti is one of the laments (planctus) from the Codex. This monophonic work is composed in the Lydian mode, a mode which particularly symbolises harshness and bitterness. This work, too, is to be found in no other manuscript. Homo miserabilis is a motet which is to be found in two other manuscripts as well, e. g. in the Codex Bamberg. There the tenor text is notated in full, which is not the case in the Codex Las Huelgas. We have taken the complete (German) tenor text, because this defines the character of the piece to a great extent and makes the meaning of the Latin “commentaries” in the duplum and triplum clear. The origin of the tenor text has not been able to be established until now. The motet seems to be a kind of funeral procession, whereby the upper voices lament the transience and misery of earthly existence, while the tenor part announces someone's death (Brumas's?). This work is a premature “dance of death”. Ex agone and Flavit auster are performed instrumentally on this CD, although they are provided with texts in the original. Instrumental music already constituted part of the musical scenery in the Middle Ages. Johannes de Grocheio (second half of the 13th century until the beginning of the 14th century) names the cantus coronatus, the ductia or the stantipes as instrumental forms in his treatise De musica. According to him they were used above all to accompany dancing, and were particularly necessary to prevent young people from thinking sinful thoughts. The two works chosen here are in the form of very short ductia or stantipes. The individual puncta (sections) are separated by continually recurring, refrain-like quotations, so that we can speak here of original models which have a vocal as well as an instrumental form. The monophonically notated Flavit auster and also the twopart Ex agone are local works which are to be found in no other manuscript. The sections of the Mass Sanctus, Agnus Dei and Benedicamus Domino represent an important component of the manuscript. Above all Sanctus and Agnus Dei are more likely to be early works which illustrate clearly the predominance of trope texts: In both cases the added text is far more comprehensive than the original Mass text. Benedicamus Domino, which is sung at the end of the Mass instead of the Missa est is reallv a rondellus, whereby the three voices continually repeat the same musical material in canon and in the same dimensions. This work could one of the earliest surviving canons. The interpretation The interpretation of the Huelgas Ensemble in based on five precepts: 1) The reading of the original notation, and the stimulus resulting from this to define style and character, is an essential prerequisite. We studied the Codex Las Huelgas in Spain as early as 1973, and the interpretation for this recording came about with the help of the facsimile manuscript. 2) We have tried to define the tempo on the basis of a modal metre (the verse base is the norm) and not of a mensural metric unit. Of significance here is that Johannes de Garlandia (c.1240) described divisio modorum as fulfilling the function of rests. Since the tempi of this recording are, we believe, nearer to the 13th than to the 20th century, they may sometimes appear somewhat too slow to modern ears. 3) Nobody can say with certainty how Latin was pronounced in 13th century Spain.Various specialist are of differing opinions on this. Local phonemes (e. g. pacem as pacem) were integrated into a system of pronunciation which is consistently applied. 4) The music of the Ars antiqua is a particularly linear art form, in which each melody of the contrapuntal texture represents a world of its own. Hieronymus de Moravia (c.1270-c.1310) and Franco of Cologne (c.1250) describe the discant as a pleasant-sounding combination of various melodies. Almost all theoreticians einphasise that the polyphonic forms came about in an additive process: the parts were not composed simultaneously, but added one after the other. Each part is an independent composition with, incidentally, also a text of its own (with the exception of the pure conductus). In the performance practice of the 13th century the addition of a new part to an already existing work was a fully valid act of composition. This is why so many compositions have been preserved in various forms. The motet O Maria maris stella, for example, is known in versions for two, three and four voices. And in the three-part version (which was based on the already existing two-part version) the added voice, which is called “triplum”, differs from one manuscript version to another. Polyphony: an aggregation of monodies. This basic principle is applied in the interpretations of the Huelgas Ensemble. This is why several works (for example recordings Nos. 1, 3, 5 and 13) are interpreted not only in one and two parts but also in three- and four-part versions. A work notated in four parts thus contains a two-part and a three-part composition. The model for this process is Belial vocatur. In Crucifigat omnes the tenor part is even sung alone; the conductus was the only form in which the tenor was not a cantus prius factus - a previously known theme - but an independent composition. 5) It is astonishing that the art of ornamentation was an essential element in the music of the Ars antiqua and that at performances until now hardly any attempts have been made to integrate these much-discussed ornamentations into the sound pattern. Nevertheless, as early as the 9th century ornamentation was mentioned in connection with monodic vocal art, and in the 13th century whole chapters were devoted to the diversity of ornamentation. Hieronymus de Moravia says himself that tempi were taken more slowly, so that the ornaments could be incorporated. Hieronymus calls the ornaments flores, Johannes de Garlandia calls them florificatio soni. The Huelgas Ensemble has tried on this recording to use various ornaments, well aware that the resulting sound is not the whole truth, but that merely an attempt in this direction has been made. The Codex Las Huelgas is a welcome source here, for the manuscript is full of a certain ornamentation sign (the plica), and a number of other ornaments are written out in notes, for example the reverberatio at the end of the first three-part version of O Maria maris stella. Without wishing to indulge in theories, we should like to name some of the most important ornaments which we have used in this recording: a) Plica: a notated ornament described in detail by theoreticians. b) Flores longi, flores aperti and flores subiti: described by Hieronymus de Moravia. Slow, moderately fast or accelerating trills on a semitone or a whole tone (vibratos). c) Reverberatio: Appoggiaturas before the main note. Also in combination with the cantinella coronata, chromatically raised and shifted notes. Example at the beginning of Benedicamus domino. d) Tremula vox: described by Engelbert of Admont, among others. An oscillating, repeated sound on one note. Also known in Gregorian chant as tristropha. Can be heard, among others, in Ex illustri. e) Vinnola vox: an ornamental figure which circles round a note like a vine tendril round a vine-stock - hence the name. The sources used by the Huelgas Ensemble for the ornamentation: - Hieronymus de Moravia (end of the 13th century): Tractatus de musica. - Johannes de Garlandia (c.1240): De mensurabili musica. - Perseus and Petrus (c.1200): Summa musice. - Johannes de Grocheio (c.1300): De musica. - Franco of Cologne (c.1270): Ars cantus mensurabilis. - Engelbert of Admont (c.1300): De musica. - Aurelius Reomensis (c.850): Musica disciplina. Paul van Nevel (Translation: Diana Loos)