Music of The Age of Chivalry
Mary Remnant, Petronella Dittmer, Mathew Hart Dyke

medieval.org
Soundalive Music SAMMT/CD 101
1987, 1995








1. Congaudentes celebremus  [1:01]  chimebells and organistrum
French 13c, from The Play of Daniel.

2. In exitu Israel  [1:06]  organistrum
Plainsong from The Tonus Peregrinus, a psalm-tone much sung by pilgrims.

3. Novus miles sequitur  [1:10]  soprano and harp   Hu  102
French 13c. Two-part conductus in honour of St Thomas, a Becket in a version surviving from the Abbey of Las Hueglas.

4. Joliettement  [0:41]  bone pipe   Mo 349
French 13c. The pre-existing tenor part of the motet known in France and England.

5. Worldes bliss ne last no throwe  [1:40]  soprano, fiddle, harp
English 13c.Song about the troubles of life before the joys of Heaven.

6. Christus vincit  [2:51]  chimebells
Plainsong, often performed in the presence of Norman and Plantagenet kings.

7. Fanfare  [0:44]  trumpet
The Cracow Hejnel, believed to have been played in the battle against the Turks in 1241.

8. Santa Maria strela do dia  [1:10]  psaltery   CSM 100
from the Cantigas of Santa Maria of Alfonso X 'The Wise' of Castile.

9. Alle psallite cum luya  [1:15]   soprano, psaltery   Mo 339
Although the music is English, the song survives in a French source which is used here.

10. Chose Tassin  [0:41]  rebec and tabor   Mo 347
French 13c. Surviving as the tenor part of a motet, this dance-like melody is thought to be by the Parisian minstrel Tassin.

11. Edi beo thu, hevene quene  [1:48]  soprano and harp
English 13c. A hymn to Our Lady.

12. Ma viele  [0:44]  fiddle
Gautier de Coinci, c1177-1236. From the collection of Miracles de Nostre Dame by the Prior of Vic-sur-Aisne.

13. Sumer is icumen in  [0:32]  pipe and tabor
The main tune from the celebrated round from Reading Abbey.

14. Angelus ad Virginem  [1:39]  portative organ
English 14c, an Annunciation hymn, mentioned in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

15. Marionette douce  [0:58]  psaltery
English, c1300.

16. Bryd one brere  [0:49]  rebec
English, c1300.

17. Cis chans veult boire  [0:21]  shawm, tabor, cymbals
French 14c. Part of a drinking song from the satirical Roman de Fauvel.

18. Maria muoter  [0:52]  symphony
German, 14c, a hymn dating from the time of the Black Death.

19. Ad mortem festinamus  [0:57]  psaltery   LV  10
Spanish 14c. The 'Dance of Death' surviving among pilgrim songs in the Llibre Vermell at the Abbey of Monserrat.

20. Fanfare  [0:24]  trumpet
Anon. based on a 14c hunting call.

21. Ave Rex gentis Anglorum  [0:52]  chimebells
Plainsong. An antiphon in honour of St Edmund, King of East Anglia.

22. In Gottes namen fahren wir  [1:16]  rebec
German 14c, a pilgrim song.

23. Lullay, Lullay: As I lay on Yooles night  [0:52]  wood pipe
English 14c. One of the earliest surviving carols.

24. Douce dame jolie  [1:04]  mandora
Guillaume de Machaut c1300-1377, by the greatest French composer of the time.

25. Trotto  [0:54]  portative organ
Italian 14c, a lively dance tune.

26. Verbum caro factum est  [0:44]  soprano, gittern
Italian 14c, text by the Franciscan Richard de Ledrede, Bishop of Ossory.

27. Me lylcyth ever the lenger the bet  [0:46]  recorder
English 14c, part of a song in praise of Winchester.

28. Scribere proposui  [0:48]  two gitterns
Anon 14c, a dance melody.








The Musicians:
Mary Remnant: harp, pasaltery, gittern, mandora, rebec, fiddle, organistrum, symphony, portative organ,
bone pipe, wood pipe, recorder, pipe and tabor, shawm, chimebells, percussion
Petronela Dittmer: Soprano and organistrum
Mathew Hart Dyke: Trumpet

Cover illustration: Lombardo School's A Gentleman Dancing with Two Ladies
by kind permission of Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
© & ℗ 1987, 1995 Soundalive Music Limited

Soundalive Music is part of the International Heritage Corporation

During the 12th and 13th centuries the Troubadors, the aristocratic poet/musicians of Southern France, brought into being a philosophy of love, or Chivalry. This was more than 'courtesy' or good manners. It implied valour and worthiness, honour and joy. This ideal, co-existing with the church, produced texts expressing passionate love of the human heart alongside a mystical devotion to the Virgin Mary. By the 1400s, as the code of Chivalry reached its fullest refinement, Orders of Chivalry, inspired by the fictional story of King Arthur, were founded throughout Europe and in England, where in 1344, Edward III founded the Order of the Garter at Windsor Castle.

This recording focuses on the musical instruments of this period as portrayed in carvings, stained glass and manuscripts. Many originated in earlier times, the harp, psaltery, rebec, crowd, organ, pipe, shawm, horn, chimebells and cymbals dating back to the Roman period. Other instruments appeared during the 13th century, including gittern, pipe and tabor, bagpipes and the portative organ. The small kettle drum seems to have come to Europe as a result of the Crusades and although the lute is first mentoned in a document of 1285, its earliest English portrayal (and those of its smaller version, the mandora) are from the 14th century.