All-female ensembles have hitherto been rather thin on the ground, but following on from Anonymous 4 and the high-voice section of Sequentia, here is Discantus, a ten-member group of sopranos and contraltos, dedicated to breathing new life into the performance of sacred monody and early polyphony. This is an attractive and varied selection of pieces illustrating different aspects of twelfth-century French music, the main sources being two manuscripts from the school of St-Martial de Limoges and the Codex Calixtinus, or Liber Sancti Jacobi, compiled in Burgundy, but relating to the famous pilgrimage to the shrine of St James of Compostela. One might wonder why an all-female ensemble should be singing such a repertoire, but one might also recall that Madame Eglantine was prominent among the Canterbury pilgrims. However, Marie-Noel Colette – I have a hunch that she must have helped with the programme behind the scenes – was really thinking of the nuns in their monasteries and the kind of music some of them might have been singing in addition to their normal liturgical chants.
There are, indeed, a number of delightful Benedicamus tropes included in the programme, which might well have been used in the liturgy of Lauds and Vespers on high feast days, and also two splendid troped Kyries, Cunctipotens genitor Deus and Rex immense. Other pieces might have served more as pious entertainment in a monastic setting – there are several Christmas and Marian subjects; though I do wonder what one is expected to make of Gregis pastor Tityrus (shades of Theocritus and Virgil!) – the 'Master of asses' – if not as an Epiphany or Feast of Fools insertion?
The work which remains in the memory, after listening with delight to the whole of this absorbing programme, is undoubtedly a piece (from a rather later source) based on the Sibylline Oracles, Judicii signum, with its ominous, low-voiced announcement of the Last Judgement. Indeed, the alternation from piece to piece of high and low voices, of solo and choir, of monody and polyphony is adroitly and effectively managed throughout the recital, so that the musical interest of a well-balanced and well-planned programme is sustained.
Brigitte Lesne and her singers have learnt (probably, I think, from Dominique Vellard) some useful lessons, one of them being how to make repercussion sound discreetly convincing. The cadential ornamentation, sometimes involving a kind of double polyphonic shake, might have gained, perhaps, from being allowed a little more panache. The vocal timbre is clear and fresh and the whole performance moves along with cheerful confidence. R1 '9507138'