VocaMe - Christine De Pizan: Chansons et Ballades (2015)

The VocaMe vocal ensemble has committed itself to presenting exceptional female figures in early music, and the four ladies have already attracted much attention with the songs of Hildegard and Kassia. The secret of their success lies in their special approach to interpretation: against a background of thorough understanding of historical performance practice, the four singers and their musical director and instrumentalist Michael Popp feel their way into the ancient sources, which usually leave much room for conjecture. The ensemble accordingly takes great liberties with its musical concepts, in order to bring the sound of past centuries to life. Christine de Pizan was a poet, not a musician. VocaMe has now given a voice to other texts of hers by creating contrafacta with contemporary music. Such ""parody"" was a customary practice at the time. VocaMe has pursued this idea and used late medieval melodies and sounds to transform Christine's poetry into fascinating music.