Music from the 18th century.
Today the programme is dedicated to Pierre Abélard of Petrus Abelardus (1079-1142), a French philosopher, poet and musician, mostly known for his relationship to Héloïse.
Abélard married her Against the wishes of Héloîse’s uncle Fulbertus, canon of the cathedral in Paris, with whom Abélard lived. For punishment he was banned to a monastery in Bretagne, while Héloïse first became a nun and next an abbess in a convent on the other side of France.
Héloïse and Abélardkept in contact through writing and Abélard wrote songs with melodies to be performed on the liturgy in her convent. He also wrote several Planctus, lamentations of Biblical figures, such a Jacob (about his presumed dead son Joseph) and the Israelite Girls (about Jephthah’s daughter).
His melodies were long presumed to be lost, however, more of his melodies have surfaced through research over the last decades. This hour you will be listening to seven pieces, from two different CD-recordings.
Pierre Abélard (1079-1143)
1. Infelices filii
2. O quanta qualia
3. Ad festas choreas celibes
4. Serpens erectus
Ensemble Ligeriana olv. Katia Caré
(CD: “Abélard & Héloïse” – Bayard Musique 308 495.2, 2016)
5. Ne derelinquas me
6. Epithalamica
7. De profundis
Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge conducted by Mary Berry
(CD: “Hymns & Sequences for Heloise” – Herald HAVPCD 168, 1994)
Addition:
Chrétien de Troyes (2nd half 12th century)
8. D’amors, qui m’a tolu
Capilla Antigua de Chinchilla conducted by José Ferrero
(CD: “Percival’s Lament – Medieval music and the Holy Grail” – Naxos 8.572800, 2012)
