The disc’s subtitle is “13th-century Galician-Portuguese Songs & Dances of Love, Longing, & Devotion”. My subtitle is, “this is one of the finest discs of its kind.” It fully, often arrestingly captures the essential spirit of these lovely poetic texts and ancient melodies and virtually jumps and dances and vibrantly rings with the kind of life these songs’ creators must have felt 800 years ago. If you’re new to secular music of this period and place, you will be surprised at its incredible rhythmic energy, catchiness, and complexity. You’ll also be captivated by the originality and variety of the melodies–sensuous, infectious, irresistible. Of course, we will never know for sure how those singers and instrumentalists of ancient times performed these songs, but that’s not really the point, any more than we worry about only performing a Bob Dylan song the way Bob Dylan does it.
In fact, several of these songs aren’t all that ancient: Because many of the original melodies have been lost or weren’t attached to the original texts, other melodies–some taken from other contemporary sources and others written or arranged according to period custom by members of Ensemble Alcatraz–had to be supplied. Veteran early music listeners will hear a little Baltimore Consort, a little Anonymous 4, an occasional hint of Gothic Voices style–but ultimately these first class performers, melodists, and arrangers do their own thing with as much sincerity and care for period style–with an ear to modern acoustical esthetics–as the best of their colleagues.
These “songs of love and longing for the absent beloved” are women’s songs, and here they’re sung either by a solo voice or female ensemble. Accompaniment varies from harp and psaltery to rebec and various percussion instruments, and the program is very well organized to maximize the variety of material. I should mention that the disc opens and closes with examples from the famous and oft recorded collection of Cantigas de Santa Maria, songs in the same style and from the same period but with religious texts of devotion to the Virgin Mary. The first song, in a lilting triple meter, is a perfect combination of earthly sensuality and spiritual love, an apt introduction to what follows. Combine these delights with excellent sound and Cantigas de Amigo is a must for any early music collection.
