Treasure Trove – Cantigas de Santa Maria
by Bill Jamieson, Executive and Artistic Director, EMSI
and member of Bourdons medieval ensemble
The Cantigas de Santa Maria, featured in our upcoming concert on October 25 are truly a treasure trove of medieval music: over 400 songs with musical notation, surviving in four manuscripts, one of which is richly illustrated with images of musicians engaged in their craft.
The songs are often attributed to Alfonso X, King of Castile, Léon and Galicia in the 13th Century. Alfonso was clearly an enlightened ruler. He was an intellectual, taking a keen interest in astrology, history and literature, encouraging poetry and music in his court and introducing a progressive law code in Castile. This earned him the moniker “El Sabio” or “The Wise”. But did he compose the over 400 songs making up the Cantigas, many of which have upwards of 12 to 15 verses? With wars to wage and political alliances to maintain, on top of governing his realm, where would he find the time? It seems more likely that he commissioned and supported the creation of the collection by members in his court and perhaps wrote some of them himself. Regardless, it was a monumental achievement for which we may rightly give him credit.
Written in Galician Portuguese, the songs praise the Virgin Mary and tell stories of miracles wrought by her. Despite the religious themes, they resemble secular music in their simplicity and accessibility. There seems a good chance that popular “folk” tunes were incorporated into their melodies.
Unlike the courtly chivalric love songs of the French courts typified by the troubadours and trouvères, many of the characters depicted in the stories of the Cantigas are common people, engaged most often in day-to-day activities. Though the songs came from the royal court, the musical language and simple, relatable stories would suggest that they were designed to appeal to, and inspire a broad section of Alphonso’s subjects. They may also have been intended to entertain and enlighten pilgrims, similarly to other collections such as the equally famous Llibre Vermell de Montserrat.
Musically, the majority of the songs are ternary in form, beginning with a repeated refrain or “burden” interspersed with verses. Each verse consists of two parts: a variation of, or a contrasting melody to, the refrain, followed by a repeat of the refrain melody, before returning to the refrain itself, resulting in an ABA – ABA pattern throughout.
Typical of medieval music, the tunes have a limited range. The refrain (A section) passage generally resides within a hexachord (a range of six notes in a scale) built on the particular mode. In some cases, but not all, variety is achieved in the first part of the verse (B section) by shifting up to a hexachord residing a fifth above the tonic (sometimes referred to as the plagal version of the mode).
The music was notated in the square “neumes” of the time. This notation indicates the pitch of each note and whether the note is long or short. However, there is little or no indication how long or short, no time signature and no bar lines. This leaves much to be surmised from the context. When transcribing from the original, one is left with many decisions. Is the piece in triple time (3/4 or 6/8) or duple time (2/4 or 4/4) or perhaps in some other more complex metre? Is that first note a weak note (like a pickup to the beginning of a bar) or a strong beat (like the beginning of a bar)? Is the tempo slow or fast? Choosing between these possibilities can completely transform the character of the music, which allows for much creative scope for interpretation and improvisation by the performers. Clues can be gleaned from the emphases in the text, or simply what “feels right” musically. Of course, how we “feel” music is likely very different from how medieval musicians “felt” the music, so a modern performer who strives to recreate how the music was originally performed must be prepared to subvert some of their musical instincts in order to guard against obvious anachronisms.
What seems evident in these pieces from the regularity of the patterns of long and short is that the music is very rhythmic in nature. This suggests that it sounded quite dancelike, notwithstanding that the music was written as settings of texts. This supports their performance both as vocal and instrumental pieces, a conclusion strongly underlined by the images included in one of the surviving contemporary manuscripts. These images depict many different instruments in combination with each other and with singers.
With over 400 songs to choose from, for the upcoming concert, Bourdons have focused on a selection of small, almost trivial miracles because they illustrate the very personal, practical, every-day connection to the Virgin Mary felt by the people, and because they are entertaining stories that we can relate to even today. The Virgin Mary seems to have been happy to deliver on “no miracle too small”. She comes across as very connected to the individuals and their struggles, whether profound or trivial, and rewards both the righteous and the sinful with redemption. It is easy to see how this would be a comfort and a welcome belief set for those who inhabited an everyday life that was marked by challenges, uncertainty and privations.
One of the impacts of Protestantism is the emphasis of treating religious themes ever-so-seriously. Similarly, the study of ancient texts encourages us to approach the material with scholarly weight and great reverence. But people in the Middle Ages had a well-developed and irreverent sense of humour, which shows up in many of the songs, for example in the story of the stolen lamb who miraculously bleats “here I am” to the consternation and defeat of the thief.
These songs fulfill multiple roles. They are devotional, singing the praises of the Virgin Mary; inspirational, extolling and reinforcing faith in the divine; elegant works of art which, for all of their simplicity, are beautifully crafted and amazingly creative within the limited musical vocabulary of their time; and entertaining and engaging story-telling.
We hope the October 25th performance will connect you to the lives of very real people, not so different from us, who lived 800 years ago.
