C 9703/4 LE CHANT DES CATHÉDRALES (Notre Dame School, 12th-14th c) (2 CDs ) [13,99 Euros]

Between 1150 and 1270 a renovating creative stream was to completely and forever change the European music: the school of Notre Dame of Paris. If the appearance of the earliest polyphonies was crucial for the development for the occidental music, and took a long time, the repertoire of the school of Notre Dame consolidated a new state of the music. And two names stands out in this artistic movement: Leonin and Perotin. The first was the supreme creator of the new style, and the second one was his extraordinary successor, stylistic and chronologically.

These 2 new CDs on our series "The Mirror Collection" explore not only the birth of the school of Notre Dame and its continuation and dissemination for all Europe until mid-14th century, but also the opposite and at the same time complementary personalities of the two Parisian masters, Magister Leoninus and Magister Perotinus. Through a sublime selection of monodic and polyphonic pieces (mostly in the form of organa and conducti), the Ensemble Gilles Binchois recreates all the mystery of the Notre Dame music. Reputed as great experts in the stylistic secrets of medieval singing, this ensemble offers its own vision of this impressive music, renovated and more poetical, paying a big attention to the relation between the texts and the tempo of each piece, and of course to the surprising harmonies produced in a repertoire that, to our ears, still sounds as modern as it did to the ears of the astonished Parisian listeners of the 13th century.