PEROTIN LE GRAND / MUSIQUE A NOTRE -DAME / AN 1200
PEROTIN THE GREAT / MUSIC AT NOTRE-DAME / YEAR 1200
Collegium Aureum/Deller Consort
Choeur et ensemble instrumental - direction, Alfred Deller
Harmonia Mundi, ?, HM 30 823
The beginning of the 13th century saw the rise of Paris as an European capital with the apparition of a new form of music : polyphony. Already the near completion of the cathedral Notre-Dame in 1182 was an event in itself. There in the cathedral a school of music was established with composers like Pérotin who died around 1230. From the monodic Gregorian chanting, Perotin and other masters built a new way of celebrating Christian events like christmas with three-part singing set on three-beat vocalise. It is said that the singers were in a state of trance that distorted their faces thus frightening the audience...But this revolution spread out in the whole of Western Europe.
Here the four singers are backed by some instruments like the portable organ or the recorder. The result is great although I think there is too much reverberation. My copy being not very good I had to use another rip which is a bit better. But the three tracks on each side are together in one. Hope it's not too bothering for you.
A. Deller died in 1979 and put the contertenor voice back on the forefront.
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