Protocoles Cliniques de Port Royal en Obstétrique

Pèlerine multirécidiviste, peu douée pour la marche et accrochée à ses cigarettes, Alix de Saint-André a pris trois fois la route de Compostelle. D'abord, depuis Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, sur le «chemin français», où s'envolèrent ses idées de méditation solitaire dans des refuges surpeuplés ; puis, de La Corogne jusqu'à Finisterre, sur le «chemin angalis» ; et enfin depuis les bords de Loire, pour accomplir ce que les Espagnols appellent «le vrai chemin», celui qu'on doit faire en partant de chez soi…

Francisco Lopez Capillas was born in 1608 in Mexico City, and studied plainchant and polyphonic composition at the Royal and Pontifical University before assuming the post of chorister and second organist at Puebla Cathedral in 1641. Although most of his significant works were composed toward the end of his life–and thus well into what is generally regarded as the baroque period–the Messe de la Bataille is, like many of his other works, ambiguous in its relationship to the musical innovations that were taking place in the old world at the time. With this Mass, Capillas took a polychoral approach that harked back explicitly to the great masters of Renaissance polyphony, though the work is not entirely innocent of baroque elements. Nor is it lacking in local musical influences–regional percussion instruments and recognizably South American rhythmic patterns contrast with the Latin texts to create a fascinating juxtaposition of old- and new-world flavors.