Songs of Angels

Song of Angels, a selection of songs from Gauthier de Coincy's monumental verse narrative Les Miracles de Nostre-Dame, brings to life a fascinating page of medieval history, shedding light on the profound, and sometimes mysterious, connections between music and piety in thirteenth-century Europe. Despite the album title, these are songs dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Coincy's work, an extensive account of the many miracles attributed to St. Mary that includes a number of songs, reflects the growing importance of the Marian cult. What makes Coincy (1177 - 1236) a crucial figure in the history of music is that this "trouvère monk," as he was known, created the earliest significant collection of vernacular Marian songs, as musicologist Robert Falck pointed out. While trouvère poetry and music are profoundly secular, even earthy, Coincy's songs dedicated to the Virgin Mary are not in any way profane, for the Marian cult in the Middle Ages sprang from the wellsprings of popular piety, which the Church eventually accepted to a certain degree. In this recording, the New London Consort, directed by Philip Pickett, offers performances of songs from Les Miracles de Nostre-Dame, capturing, insofar as this is possible in a recording of medieval music, the unique spirit of popular piety translated into music. The listener easily discerns a profound counterpoint of gentle, almost wistful, lyrical devotion and feelings of overpowering, irresistible religiosity expressed by simple yet deeply convincing melodies sometimes impatiently moving over various sonic foundations, including the primal sound of open fifths. Indeed, with its artful mixture of earthy power and lyrical devotion, this music -- performed with clarity, taste, refined expressiveness, and grace -- convincingly conveys the somewhat paradoxical spirit of Marian piety. It should be pointed out, however, that six of the eight songs performed were not composed by Coincy. S'amour dont sui espris is by Blondel de Nesle; Ma viele is an anonymous polyphonic conductus, as is Talens m'est pris orendroit. Hui matin a l'ajournee stems from a motet, while Hui enfantez is based on a sequence. Finally, Entendez tuit ensemble comes from a conductus by Pérotin. Like many medieval musician-poets, Coincy freely relied on older musical sources. However, as music historians have pointed out, his musical oeuvre is far from simply derivative and certainly includes original melodies.