MUSIQUE AU TEMPS DES CROISADES
musique instrumentale & vocale du XIIIe siècle
LE FLORILEGIUM MUSICUM DE PARIS
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MUSIC AT THE TIME OF THE CRUSADES
instrumental & vocal music of the XIIIth century
CBS, 1973, 76083
This is the first album in ''Early music'' category. I said in the introduction to this blog that I would post some LPs of this type. As a lover of traditional music I was also attracted at an early age to Medieval and Renaissance musical culture. After years of listening and reading about traditional cultures I could see the links that were at work between early music and late traditions. The folk or revival movement in France was close to this kind of music from the beginning along other influences. What we consider as typical of certain regions comes to some extent from the Middle-Age and Renaissance periods.
Here the band called ''musical florilegium of paris'' was led by Jean-Claude Malgoire and was one of the most important ensembles in France at the time. I remember that I used to go to their free concerts in the early 70s on Sunday afternoons. They recorded several albums this one being the first one.
Their goal was to give a new life to the vocal and instrumental music from the medieval period to our times. They worked from original manuscripts from Montpellier, Bamberg and Apt, the major part of the compositions being anonymous. The text written by Marie-Françoise Bloch is rich and informative but in French only. It discusses the possibility of the Arabic influence on the Southern culture in France as well as how evolved the vocal music between the XIth and XIIIth centuries.
The term Crusades refers as well to the ''Croisade des Albigeois'' when the French king at the pope's request invaded the South of France in order to eradicate the heretics known as Cathares or Albigeois.
If a certain number of you feel interested in this album I'll post more of it.
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