Search - Roberto Spremulli, La Reverdie :: Historia Sancti Eadmundi - De la liturgie dramatique au drame liturgique (The Story of Saint Edmund - From dramatic liturgy to liturgical drama)

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Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 06/03/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"La Reverdie is an ensemble that all Medieval music fans should know. Their recordings of the "lauda" repertoire are the most musically satisfying of any; one can imagine the ordinary folk of Florence gathering in their chapels and taking pleasure in such music.



This CD is a more ambitious project for La Reverdie, performing all the elements of a liturgical drama as it must have sounded in the sanctuary of a monastery, the normal locus for such dramas. Such a performance had to include the normal chants of the religious calendar - antiphons, propers, readings of the lessons, and psalms. Fortunately this CD includes a very thorough booklet decribing such occasions. There are at least a dozen CDs available of liturgical dramas (the most famous being the Play of Daniel), but this one from La Reverdie offers the best blend of authenticity and musical lisyening pleasure."

La Reverdie on a slightly different tack

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 02/28/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Historia Sancti Eadmundi. De la liturgie dramatique au drame liturgique. Vito - Passio - Miracula. Performed by La Reverdie (Claudia Caffagni, vocals, citole, symphonia, bells, pompage; Livia Caffagni, vocals, crwth, recorder; Elisabetta de' Mircovich, vocals, vielle, harp, symphonia, bells; Ella de' Mircovich, vocals, harp, cithara teutonica; Morena d'Este, vocals, organ; Patrizia Zanni, vocals; Doron David Sherwin, percussion, bells, pompage; Paolo Zerbinatti, organistrum, organ, pompage). Recorded at the "Sacra Familia" community in Martinengo (Bergamo, Italy) in April 1996 under the auspices of Charlotte Gilart de Kéranflec'h and Klaus L. Neumann. Published in 1997 as Arcana A 43. Total time: 62'30".



For this, their seventh CD album, the Italian ensemble La Reverdie chose to walk a rather different path from their previous recordings. These had consisted of collections of medieval songs either from all over Europe or from particular regions (Northern Italy, for example). But the "Historia Sancti Eadmundi" is a unified work, the result of considerable research by the members of the ensemble, who appear to have gathered all the available material on St. Edmund, the martyred last King of East Anglia (died around 870 A. D.), from university libraries in New York, Oxford, Cambridge and London, and have put together a speculative but at the same time highly convincing "liturgical drama" as it might have been performed in the centuries following Edmund's death. There is no polyphony here; rather we are treated to spoken declarations accompanied by bells and truly ancient instruments, interspersed with long passages of Gregorian-style chant in Latin, all telling the story of how Edmund was seized by Yngvarr, the King of the invading Danes, and, after torture, was beheaded. The legend has it that after his death the severed head spoke to those around, re-assuring them of his intercession in the heavenly realm. (This is, of course, the Edmund whose name is to be found in the city of Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, England.) Musically, the CD is not perhaps as enthralling as the more varied collections on the previous CDs (Svso in Italia Bella; Laude di Sancta Maria; Speculum Amoris; O tu Chiara Scienca), but the realisation of the concept is nonetheless brilliantly achieved, with the documentation (assuming there is normally an English translation - I personally have the French-only edition B 43) being all and more than one could require, the engineering as superb as ever and the ladies (and gentlemen) of La Reverdie providing a fascinating hour's trip back to the roots of English culture. An absolutely first-class medieval recording!"