Ensemble San Felice & Federico Bardazzi - El cant de la Sibilla: Sacred Music from Medieval Catalunya (2017)

Tracklist
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01. Polorum Regina
02. Los set goyts
03. Maria matrem virginem
04. Stella splendens
05. Imperayritz de la ciudad joyosa
06. El comte Arnau
07. Ad mortem festinamus
08. Laudemus Virginem - Splendens ceptigera
09. Antiphona: Christus natus est nobis - Psalmus 94/95 (Invitatory): Venite exultemus Domino
10. Benedictio - Lectio - De homilia Sancti Augustini
11. Responsorium: Verbum caro factum est
12. Benedictio - Lectio - Sermo Sancti Augustini in die Natalis Domini
13. El cant de la Sibilla
14. O Virgo splendens
15. Cuncti simus concanentes
16. Ave maris stella


This fascinating programme attempts to depict an imaginary coming together of pilgrims from various countries on their way to celebrate Christmas Mass at the Catalan monastery of Montserrat, one of the strongest bastions of Christianity in the middle ages. During the Matins on Christmas day a boy dressed up as the Sybil blindfoldedly sang the famous verses from pagan times predicting the coming of Christ and the end of the world (this practice was later forbidden by the Council of Trent).

This liturgical drama includes music from the famous Llibre Vermell de Montserrat, Gregorian Chant and the 14th century Barcelona Lectionary.

Federico Bardazzi and his vocal and instrumental group use copies of original instruments (based on detailed research). For the vocal parts they use a form of improvisation and ornamentation based on Christian, Arab and Jewish tradition, as was in the culture of the Iberian Peninsula in the middle ages.

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