St Lucy’s Mass – Gregorian chants and polyphonies from mediaeval manuscripts from the Apt Cathedral (11th – 14th c.) The city of Apt in Southern France was founded between 45 and 30 BC and an archbishopric since the 3rd c. Until today, in the cathedral’s vault are kept several mediaeval liturgical manuscripts, which contain among many others the Mass in Honour of St Lucy recorded on this CD. Since 2005, photographs of these manuscripts have been on public view in the cathedral. Churches, cathedrals and monasteries were religious and intellectual centres during the Middle Ages. Christianity played an important role in a mediaeval society. Plain chant tries, either as an inner experience or accompanying praying, to imitate celestial music on earth. The offices are sung by clerics, monks and nuns, but everybody can take part in the singing of hymns. Women were not excluded from liturgical singing and they celebrated the daily offices in their convents as well. “Women sing conveniently the psalm; these sweet chants may be sung by all ages and both sexes” (St Ambrose, 4th century). The music was then handed down almost exclusively orally and the singers of the Schola Cantorum had to learn the whole liturgical repertory of the year by heart. So, the transmission happened by singing and repetition. Since the 9th century, plain chant has been notated in handwritten chant books. The process was initiated by Pippin the Younger (715-768) and Charlemagne (747-814) when they reformed the liturgy in their empire. An important number of books had to be written and a musical notation to be invented in order to standardize the plain chant. Thanks to these efforts, teaching music became simpler and faster and the transmission of music was not based solely on memory anymore. The cathedral of Apt possesses almost forty mediaeval manuscripts, including some liturgical books from the 11th to the 14th century. Their different musical notations allow us to follow the evolution of musical writing in the Middle Ages. Troper from the 11th c. - Apt, Trésor de la Cathédrale ms. n°17 A troper is a collection of liturgical chants, so-called tropes, additions to mass chants for main feasts. The first manuscripts known with tropes can be dated from the beginning of the 10th century; this tradition continued until the 13th century. The above-mentioned manuscript has an Aquitanian notation and following musicologist Charles Atkinson it could have been written in Apt. For our recording we used ordinary chants and tropes from this manuscript being one of the oldest books in the cathedral: a Kyrie eleison (D mode) with its trope Caelestis terrestrisque vite rector; a Gloria (E mode) with the trope Quem cuncta laudant ut bona valde, a highly original composition with a melisma repeating the whole melody at the end of each phrase; a Greek Agios agios agios and an Agnus Dei in D mode. The Agios (Sanctus) might astonish the listener at that place in the mediaeval liturgy. However, the very melismatic chant is part of a mass for Whitsuntide and offers us a very nice example of Byzantine elements continue to exist in the Latin liturgy at a time when the knowledge of the Greek language had already considerably declined. That is why we can find some errors in the Latin of this chant. The melody in D mode is typical Aquitanian with its beautiful lines and ornaments to make the liturgy as solemn as possible. Gradual from the 13th c. – Apt, Trésor de la Cathédrale ms. n°6 This gradual written in Aquitanian notation on scratched lines and a red f-line contains the chants of the Mass in Honour of St Lucy which are notated on the folio 108r-v: the introit Dilexisti iusticiam (G mode), accompanying the solemn entry of the priest; the gradual Dilexisti iusticiam with the verse Propterea unxit te Deus (G mode); the Alleluia Diffusa est gracia (F mode); the offertory Offerentur regi virgines (D mode) and the communion Diffusa est gracia (F mode). Almost all the texts of these chants of the virgin’s office have been taken from psalm 44. The offertory has been completed from another Aquitanian gradual from Saint-Yrieix (Paris, BNF lat. 903). The verses Eructavit cor meum and Adducentur in letitia as well as the prosulae Lucis auctor et celsa laudes and Virginales resonemus iugiter laudes, added at the end of the chant, originate in this last manuscript. Collection from the 14th c. – Apt, Trésor de la Cathédrale ms. n°16bis This manuscript contains 48 compositions from ars nova and ars subtilior. It was written in the 14th c. The compositions testify to the artistic splendour and the magnificence of the Papal chapel in Avignon at that time. As in most musical manuscripts from this period, the polyphonic pieces are notated in separate parts. The notation of the hymns is characteristic of the early ars nova (1320); following the rhythm of the notes written with black ink, they are either separate or appear in groups of two or three. We inserted strophic three-part hymns: Jhesu corona virginum and Ave maris stella into the mass. Kristin Hoefener The papal chapel of Avignon in the 14th c. The 14th c. was a turning point in the music history at the papal court, as we can see at the example of the manuscript n. 16 of the Apt cathedral. The popes, since 1309 residing in Avignon, took over the heritage of the rich Roman liturgy and tried to keep, at least in the beginning, the old traditions. Pope John XXII (1316-34) condemned the ars nova polyphony in his famous decree Docta sanctorum dating from 1324/25. He criticized the very complex movements of the melody made possible thanks to the new notation systems. These movements made the liturgical text incomprehensive for the congregation, which was considered an offence in mediaeval sacred music. A new 'chapelle pontificale' was founded during the pontificate of Benedict XII (1334-42) and the fusion between liturgy and music got more and more lost. His successor Clemens VI (1342-52) continued in this direction and engaged singers from Northern France and Flanders, the regions where the ars nova was born. He built a big chapel in his palace where professional singers could perform the new polyphonic compositions. Soon, the 'chapelle pontificale' became a musical centre in the mediaeval occident and contributed to increase the prestige of the Papal sovereign. The manuscript from Apt can be considered as a witness of this musical evolution. The first composition in the manuscript, a Kyrie with the trope Clemens pater, has probably been written in honour of Clemens VI and is one of the earliest examples of the ars nova repertory sung in the Papal chapel. The manuscript was notated by different copyists between 1360 and the end of the 14th c. Probably its last owner was Richard of Bozonville, maitre de chapelle under the reign of Benedict XIII (1395-1405) and provost of the Cathedral in Apt, brought the manuscript to Apt where it has been conserved since then. Etienne Anheim KANTIKA was founded by musicologist and singer Kristin Hoefener in Paris in 1998. Her passionate and rigorous research leads her back to the roots of mediaeval music. The unique musical style of KANTIKA combines the soul of early chants with a refined contemporary sound. Sacred music is performed in its liturgical context, the historical order of the office being respected. A programme with Gregorian chant invites listeners to a journey into the past, into the mediaeval universe of a monastery, a cathedral or a court where time would flow more slowly, according to other rhythms, where one would ceaselessly sing the praises of God and love. So, KANTIKA connects both, a historical approach to the original manuscripts, and a vocal research enriched by each singer’s personal background. For some of our programmes, we invite different musicians playing the lute, the rebec, flutes or percussion, although the ensemble never exceeds chamber music size. Ensemble KANTIKA seeks to revive the sound of the mediaeval plain chant in an authentic acoustic. That is the reason why we recorded this CD at the Abbaye Blanche, White Abbey, of Mortain. This Norman Cistercian abbey, which was founded in 1115, has a particularly pure acoustic which corresponds perfectly to our research on natural sound. PRESS The all-female group Kantika has specialized since its foundation in 1998 in mediaeval chant and polyphony, its performances springing from a sound musicological basis. This disc shows precisely why they have been so successful: a particular repertoire of chant has been chosen – in this case from the Mass for St Lucy as recorded in the manuscripts at Apt – and given a performance of vibrant inner conviction…the performance style is very much the group’s own. One feature of that style is the sense of line; it takes great care and understanding… Another is the quality of the voices. There is nothing superficially “ethereal” about them at all; rather, they are strong, colourful and positively radiant, both in monophony and polyphony. Ivan Moody, GOLDBERG**** mai 2007 PRESS Les cinq chanteuses élaborent un chant continu parsemé d’effets sonores dont le but est de recréer une communion spirituelle telle que la vivait pratiquement au quotidien la chrétienté du Moyen Age. …l’écoute… suffit également à transporter ce dernier au sein d’une atmosphère précieuse, recueillie et fervente. …L’ensemble vocal féminin Kantika … consacre la quasi-totalité de ses activités à la musique médiévale. Il met en évidence, au fur et à mesure de ses découvertes, la richesse de ce patrimoine musical peu connu et moins encore usité et convie les auditeurs à venir revivre la foi en Dieu à travers les différents lieux où il se produit (monastères, cathédrales, cours royales…) Kantika travaille essentiellement sur les manuscrits originaux et recherche l’authenticité tout en revendiquant une sonorité et une mise en place modernes. La Messe de sainte Lucie a été enregistrée en juillet 2006 à l’Abbaye normande Blanche de Mortain fondée en 1115. La recherche acoustique en adéquation avec l’effet escompté a guidé et justifié ce choix. C’est donc chose faite… et parfaitement réussie. Jean-Luc Caron, Resmusica décembre 2006 *** Lucy is said of light, and light is beauty in beholding, after that Saint Ambrose saith: The nature of light is such, she is gracious in beholding, she spreadeth over all without Iying down, she passeth in going right without crooking by right long line; and it is without dilation of tarrying, and therefore it is showed the blessed Lucy hath beauty of virginity without any corruption; essence of charity without disordinate love; rightful going and devotion to God. St Lucy, the holy virgin, was born in Sicily and extract and engendered of a noble lineage, in the city of Syracuse. When she heard of the good fame and renown of Saint Agatha or Agaas, which was published and spread all about, anon she went to her sepulchre with her mother which was named Euthicia, which had a malady, named the bloody flux, by the space of four years, the which no master in physic no surgery could heal. And when they were at a mass, Lucy said to her mother: Mother, if ye believe that this which is read be true, and also that Saint Agatha hath now presently with her Jesu Christ, and also that for his name she suffered martyrdom, and if ye, with this belief, touch her sepulchre, without doubt ye shall be anon guerished and healed. Upon this they, after the mass, when the people were departed, they twain fell down on their knees on the sepulchre of Saint Agatha in prayers, and weeping began to pray for her help and aid. Saint Lucy in making her prayers for her mother fell asleep, and she saw in her sleep Saint Agatha among the angels, nobly adorned and arrayed with precious stones, which said thus to her: Lucy, my sweet sister, devout virgin to God, wherefore prayest thou to me for thy mother, for such thing as thou mayest thyself right soon give to her? For I tell the for truth, that for thy faith, and thy good, thy mother is safe and whole. With these words Saint Lucy awoke all afraid, and said to her mother: Mother, ye be guerished and all whole; I pray you for her sake by whose prayers ye be healed, that ye never make mention to me for to take an husband or spouse, but all that good that ye would give me with a man, I pray you that ye will give it to me for to do alms withal that I may come to my saviour Jesu Christ.