Etoile du Nord: Miracles et Merveilles en France Médiévale
Anne Azéma
Caliope - 2003
This is not the first CD to explore music devoted to the Virgin Mary, but it’s unquestionably one of the most beautifully conceived and performed. French soprano Anne Azéma and Berkeley-based string player Shira Kammen breathe warmth and humanity…
10 de Répertoire, Paris (highest award)
“Tout simplement ……miraculeux” François Camper
Cast
Anne Azéma, voice and hurdy-gurdy
and
Shira Kammen, vielle, rebec, harp
Tales, legends and miracles were as important to religious life in the Middle Ages as the litrugy and theological treatises. Like stained-glas windows in churches and cathedrals, the recitation and singing of miracles stirred the religious fervor of the faithful The songs and poems on this programme bring the divine into everyday life and lend immediacy and a worldly context to medieval spirituality.
Anne Azéma and Shira Kammen re-interpret for us forgotten works that are lively, tender and colorful. Most of the works are recorded here for the first time by these two outstanding musicians of international renown.
Press
National Post, Toronto
Monday, May 26, 2003
CLASSICAL
Anne Azéma, Shira Kammen
Etoile du nord: Gauthier de Coinci et le miracle médiéval
Calliope
This is not the first CD to explore music devoted to the Virgin Mary, but it’s unquestionably one of the most beautifully conceived and performed. French soprano Anne Azéma and Berkeley-based string player Shira Kammen breathe warmth and humanity into obscure (to most of us) 12th- and 13th-century songs from northern France to the court of Alfonso the Wise in Spain, in a program that reveals intriguing musical links between the two.
Most of the songs recount miracles — often wacky ones, to modern minds— allegedly worked by the Virgin Mary. The heart of the CD, however, is the touching devotional song, Pour yver, pour noif ne pour gelee, in which the poet, Gauthier de Coinci, addresses Mary in the intimate, courtly love tradition of the troubadours. Musical soul mates, Azéma and Kammen are at the height of their formidable powers in this recording. Azéma’s gift for storytelling, her vocal freedom, the depth of her knowledge, and above all her purity of spirit go straight to the heart of both song and listener. Kammen’s accompaniments — her own inventions — are miracles in and of themselves: with the simplest of means, playing medieval fiddles and harp, she lifts the affect of each verse off the page. Her virtuosic dance interludes leap about with the most mischievous, infectious fun I’ve ever heard in medieval music.
– Tamara Bernstein.
Track Listing
I. De l’estoile toute ma vie chanterai
1. De l’estoile, mere au soleil – Anonymous – 4’13
2. Novel amour qui si m’agree – Rogeret de Cambrai (13th C.) – 2’35
II. Les maus d’amer
3. Pour yver, pour noif ne pour gelee – Gauthier de Coinci (1177/8-1236) – 14’55
III. Porte dou ciel et sourse de miel
4. La quinte estampie/Ma vièle – Anonymous (13th C.) – 2’53
5. Ma vièle et Dou cierge qui descend au jongleour – Gauthier de Coinci – 10’43
6. A Virgen Santa Maria – Attr. à Alfonse le sage (1221-1284) – 5’47
IV. Maravillosos et piadosos
7. Rose cui nois ne gelee – Gauthier de Coinci – 2′ 52
8. Gran’ dereit – Attr. à Alfonse de Sage – 2’15
9. Un brief miracle – Gauthier de Coinci – 1’37
10. Dou tres douz nom – Thibault de Champagne (1201-1253) – 5’32
11. Maravillosos et piadosos – Attr. à Alfonse de Sage – 2’50
Textes lus
Numbers 4 and 8 are instrumentals
Transcriptions, editions, arrangements: 1-8, 10-11: Anne Azéma and Shira Kammen
Sources and editions: 1. Basé sur: Paris, BN. f fr 24406, f 154r 2. Paris, Arsenal 5198, f 259 3. Paris, BN., nouv. acq. fr. 24541, f 117 4. Basé sur: BN., f fr 844, f 104v 5. Paris, BN., nouv. acq. fr. 24541, f 118 7. Paris, BN., f fr 846, f 95c 10. BN, f fr 846, f 36e
For the Cantigas, we have consulted the edition of Higini Anglès, La Música de las Cantigas de Santa Maria del Rey Alfonso el Sabio. Barcelona, Spain, 1943-1959, as well as Walter Mettman, Alfonso X. el Sabio, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Castalia, Madrid, 1988.
Edition of the texts of Gauthier de Coinci: Fréderic Keonig, Les Miracles de Notre Dame. By Gauthier de Coinci. Geneva: Droz, 4 vol., 1955-1070.
Nos remerciements les plus chaleureux vont à: Annick Lepôtre, Howard Lowell et Suzanne Establie ainsi qu’aux Amis de la Boston Camerata sans l’aide desquels ce projet n’aurait pas vu le jour. Nous remercions également Pierre Bec, F. Regina Psaki, Jean-Michel Verneiges et le Département de l’Aisne qui, par leur acceuil, ont rendu cet enregistrement possible.