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Cantigas de Santa Maria
Chants de l'Espagne mystique
Les Cantigas du Roi Alfonse le Sage, Roi de Castille (1221-1284)
THE BOSTON CAMERATA
JOEL COHEN, director
et l'ORCHESTRE ANDALOU DE FES (direction: Mohammed Briouel)
Chant:
Françoise Atlan
Hayet Ayad
Anne Azéma
Equidad Barres
Saïd Chraïbi
Instruments:
Aziz Chentoufi Alami, taâr, chant
Mustapha Amri, alto, chant
Abdeslam Amri, darbouka, chant
Mohammed Briouel, violon, alto, chant
Salah Cherqui, kanun
Joel Cohen, luth, chant
Rachid Lebbar, luth, chant
Shira Kammen, vielle, harpe
Programme
Santa Maria, strela do dia (Cantiga 100) -- ensemble
Benvennas mayo (Cantiga 406) -- Saïd Chraïbi
Loemos muit'a virgen (Cantiga 370) Hayet Ayad & ensemble
Sola fusti senlleiira (Cantiga 90) -- Equidad Barres
Mui gran dereit (Cantiga 52) instruments
Taouchia (Naubat Gribt Lahcine)
Tod' ome deve dar loor (Cantiga 230) -- Hayet Ayad
Quen entender quiser (Cantiga 130) -- Francoise Atlan & ensemble
Gran Dereit (Cantiga 56) -- Anne Azéma & ensemble
Kouli Lmalihti (Mizane Darj Arak Al Ajam)
Santa Maria leva (Cantiga 320) Francoise Atlan & ensemble
Santa Maria loei (Cantiga 200) Hayet Ayad, Equidad Barres & ensemble
Nobre don e muy precado (Cantiga 417) Anne Azéma, Francoise Atlan & ensemble
Sanaa "Kad Nilto Hibbi" (Mizane Bacit Gribt Lahcine)
A Santa Maria dadas (Cantiga 140) -- Saïd Chraïbi & luths
Sanaa "Allah hoo Yalamo" (Mizane Koddam Rasd Addayl) -- Saïd Chraïbi & ensemble
Por nos Virgen Madre (Cantiga 250) -- Anne Azéma & ensemble
transcriptions et arrangements des Cantigas: Joel Cohen (S.A.C.E.M.)
conseiller litteraire et philologique: Pierre Bec
It is for these reasons that our performances of Alfonso's Cantigas attempt to integrate certain musical elements, and musicians, whose points of reference lie outside the mainstream of Western "classical" music.
Furthermore, the possible relationship between Arabic musical art and the music of medieval Spain goes far beyond the question of instrumental morphology. The classical Arabic music of North Africa is called "Andalusian music," and its contemporary practitioners are conscious of perpetuating a system of musical thought and practice which is traced back to the Muslim courts of medieval Spain. Four hundred years after the "reunification" of Spain under a Christian Kingdom, the once- closely-related traditions of Christian and Muslim Spain have, inevitably, grown apart. But what is astonishing to the "occidental" student of Arabic classical music is how much the current tradition contains that is self-evidently very ancient. The modes of Andalusian music as currently practiced in Morocco are very similar to those employed in the European Middle Ages. The exotic microtones associated with "oriental" music in the Western imagination, are absent from this classically-codified musical sysyem. The scales are composed, like Gregorian chant, of tones and semitones arranged in different patterns according to the mode. Thus, the practitioner of Arabo-andalusian repertoire can assimilate the medodies of the Cantigas to his own instrument or voice with little disruption, and even with delectation. And, as we happily discovered during the weeks of preparatory collaboration, many melodic elements found in the Cantigas are still employed in Arabo- andalusian music. The Arabo-andalusian pieces that serve as preludes and postludes to the Cantigas on this recording were chosen for their intrinsic beauty first of all, but also for their musical kinship with certain Cantigas melodies. The musical modes of these Arabic pieces are the same as those of the Cantigas that preced or follow, and while they at no point replicate the medieval "European" melodies note-for-note, you will hear any number of musical motifs and patterns in the Arabic pieces that can be perceived as variants, or first cousins, to motifs in the Cantigas tunes.
The preparation of these Cantigas has been a large undertaking, as exhilarating and passionate in its human interactions as it has been on the scholarly and musical front.Special thanks are due Erato Disques, Paris, for their courage and foresight in supporting this project. In proceding as we have done, have we reproduced the music of Alfonso's thirteenth-century court in every detail? No, for that task is clearly impossible for us, or for anyone else. On the other hand, have we perhaps come closer to the spirit of the Cantigas, and to that extraordinary, humane, and convivial moment of our collective past? Such is our wish as we send this beautiful music forth into the world, and to you.
Joel Cohen
Mirabeau, September 1998
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