Egidius

The survival the Leiden Choirbooks from the iconoclastic fury in 1566 seems to indicate that the manuscripts were carefully kept somewhere under lock and key in the church. Today, these choirbooks provide unique and extremely valuable proof of the rich musical life of 16th century Holland. Even though musical practice flourished greatly in Dutch churches in 16th century, extremely little evidence of this has survived in Dutch archives and libraries. Of the countless music manuscripts that were used by singers of the liturgical hours as well as others, only a fraction of these have survived the ravages of time.

This two-CD selection from the fifth rediscovered Leiden Choirbook consists of around eighteen items - ranging in time from around 1480 to 1570 - including motets, settings of more substantial works such as Salve regina and Magnificat, and a splendid Mass. Composers include relatively familiar figures such as Isaac, Crecquillon, Willaert, Richafort and Clemens non Papa, and some lesser-known such as the very fine choirmaster of the Pieterskerk in Leiden, Johannes Flamingus, Nicolle des Celliers de Hesdin, Benedictus Appenzeller, and Joachimus de Monte who already made a couple of delightful contributions to Volume I in the series.

This release may have something to do with the revival of the label after the death of its founder, for the recording, begun in 2000, was finally finished last year. We should be grateful for the persistence, since Crawford Young’s interest in the Ars Subtilior, Angelorum psalat tripudium , which opens the program, engaged Young so completely that he wrote an article about it in Ricercare recently. Young’s scholarly credentials may be judged by the fact that an important article by Yolanda Plumley in Early Music History No. 22 (2003) cites two of his earlier Arcana recordings. Plumley was writing about the patronage of French princes, and her article was a peek into her work on the commentary and facsimile of Codex Chantilly that appeared two years ago. The subtitle of the disc wraps up all of this as “the avant-garde of John Duke of Berry.”

A long-awaited new release of one of the world’s most respected medieval music ensembles, Crawford Young’s Ferrara Ensemble continues its interpretation of late Gothic composers, in the first recording ever of what has been called the Mt. Everest of music notation puzzles - Angelorum psalat of the Codex Chantilly, recently published in a new edition by Crawford Young. A pinnacle of complexity, the Codex Chantilly, c1400, reflects the taste of popes and secular rulers such as Jean, Duc de Berry.

Giovanni Boccaccio - Decameron

Il libro narra di un gruppo di giovani, sette donne e tre uomini, che trattenendosi fuori città per dieci giorni (come descrive il titolo), per sfuggire alla peste nera, che imperversava in quel periodo a Firenze, raccontano a turno delle novelle di taglio spesso umoristico e con frequenti richiami all'erotismo bucolico del tempo. Per quest'ultimo aspetto, il libro fu tacciato di immoralità o di scandalo, e fu in molte epoche censurato o comunque non adeguatamente considerato nella storia della letteratura.