"It was in the 18th century that the seraglio first excited Western European imagination, not least as a result of the Arabian Nights, which, first published in Europe in 1704, owed its immense and immediate popularity to its combination of the most daring intellectuality and consummate sensuality. With YEHUDI (the Ottoman word for Jew), L'Orient Imaginaire seeks to revive the centuries-old tradition of Jewish music at the court of Constantinople.
THE ANCIENT ORIENT, a land of vivid fantasies, fairy tales and legends. Throughout time, crusaders, adventurers, poets and lovers have all sought to unlock its languishing mysteries in order to gaze upon such a forbidden and unattainable world. In the end, they could only perceive the vision - the Orient of the imagination.".

The repertoire presented here is made up exclusively of the musical glosses or Ars nova diminutions that are found in the manuscript 117 of the Biblioteca Comunale Manfrediana of Faenza, the renowned 'Codex Faenza'.

"This music comes from far away. It was surely heard in Gothic and Romanesque cathedrals, in the Roman catacombs or in Daniel's lion's den. It is a music that does not seek to convince, to overwhelm, to incite revolt - it gently insists on its differentness, its distance from all actionan and triumphant modernity; it speaks of many things that are lost - but of many more things that are merely hidden, and therefore not lost. " (Peter Hamm)

Esther Lamandier, professeur de Chant Biblique et conférencière. Après de nombreux récitals et enregistrements, Esther Lamandier s'est engagée dans l'enseignement du Chant Sacré en Hébreu biblique et dans l'Araméen des Liturgies d'Orient.

Perotin and the film by Uli Anmüuer achieves an audiovisual symbiosis, which asks about the origins and the basis of medieval music, philosophy, architecture and religiousness. The film thus creates a musical painting with medieval chants by the Hilliard Ensemble, accompanied by a scientific dispute, and choreography by Johann Kresnilc. The chant, the dispute and the dance run like a thread throughout the film; they weave around and together attempt to bring Perotin's time and music back to life. The director did not so much employ the classic documentary format with interviews and a historical ambience, rather, his focus was on the presence of music and the staging of the images and the participants. The four scientists Martin Burckhardt, Rudolf Flotzinger, Christian Kaden and Jürg Stenzl, who were filmed in various places, such as the choir stalls of Schleswig Cathedral, discuss the fundamentals of Perotin's music. In the film, the scientists do not just engage in scholastic dispute, they also play around each other as part of a staged workshop discussion. Only, the workshop is a church; the church as a space where Perotin's music can and was able to develop. The film also opens up another sphere of experience; watching the renowned choreographer Johann Kresnik creating a dance. Through the medium of dance, the choreographer and the two dancers, Simona Furlani and Tanja Oetterli, look for ways and possibilities to make the lyrics of Perotin's vocal music comprehensible to us today.

Though born a Slovene, Jacobus Gallus centered his entire work around Vienna, Prague and the diocesan city of Olomouc (Olmütz). The surprising mobility of Gallus's truly Renaissance career shows him as a model of the sixteenth-century composer. Gallus was active at both abbey and court, though at times for only a brief period before moving on: Melk, Brno (Brünn), Wroclaw (Breslau), Legnica (Liegflitz), Görlitz, Zwettl, and elsewhere. His cosmopolitan spirit is reflected, moreover, in the numerous variations of his name: Handl, Petelin, Haehn, Handelius, Coq, Kohoutek.

The style in which Gallus composed cannot be described in a few words. The fascination of his work derives from the harmonious association of different streams: on the one hand, a tendency which, despite the variety of stylistic means used, is basically conservative (the Northern influence) and, on the other, ideas which - sparse at times, but richly applied at others - range from the liberal to the progressive.

ARMES, AMOURS… Par ces mots Eustache Deschamps ouvre son hommage au grand poète disparu en 1377, Guillaume de Machaut. «Armes, amours» brandies comme l'étendard de toute noblesse.

A la fin du Moyen Âge, l'amour constitue toujours une source d'inspiration inépuisable pour les poètes et les musiciens, abordé tantôt selon la rhétorique courtoise des siècles passés (Jay pris amours; Est-il merchy …), tantôt sur un ton coquin (Ho, ho, ho; Ce qu on ait a quatimini).

Par ailleurs, nombreuses sont les compositions qui témoignent ou portent la trace des guerres, des événements politiques et religieux contemporains. Ainsi, Helas, Olivier Basselin est une complainte sur l'emprisonnement du poète-musicien normand au cours de la guerre contre les Anglais, qui ne s'achève qu'en 1453 (officiellement en 1475). L'année 1453 est aussi celle de
la prise de Constantinople par les Turcs qui progressent en Europe. A la Cour de Bourgogne l'Ordre de la Toison d'Or milite pour une nouvelle croisade. Dans ce contexte, la chanson de L'homme armé devient emblématique. Aussi Morton l'utilise-t-il dans son rondeau en l'honneur de «Maistre Simon le Breton», chapelain bourguignon parti affronter les Turcs.

The Remède de Fortune is one of Machaut's most famous publications, combining musical scores into a larger poetic narrative. This performance includes instrumental improvisation in some selections.

Al publicar el presente volumen del Códice de Santa María la Real de las Huelgas, es un deber imperioso agradecer a las monjas de dicho Monasterio cisterciense su admirable y abnegada colaboración. El Códice de las Huelgas es el único manuscrito polifónico medieval que aún se conserva en el lugar de origen y es guardado por la misma orden que lo recopiló e interpretó fervorosamente desde hace siete siglos. Es también el único manuscrito importante que nos queda de la música religiosa medieval castellana y las monjas actuales, sucesoras en cierto modo de aquellas que dieron vida al Códice, accedieron con toda amabilidad y entusiasmo a nuestro deseo de que su presencia de hoy diera vida a los cantos de antaño bajo los mismos techos y con los mismos hábitos que lo hacían sus fieles antecesoras.

Gracias, a ellas, el «planctus» por la muerte de Alfonso VIII de Castilla, el noble fundador del Monasterio, ha resonado de nuevo ante la tumba del rey. Es ésta una página de la Historia de España que las monjas del Císter, dulcemente, casi sin darse cuenta, ibann resucitando siete siglos después, ante el testimonio mudo, pero de oídos bien despiertos, de unos micrófonos instalados en la clausura.

El trabajo de estas admirables monjas ocupa la primera cara de nuestro disco. Ante la imposibilidad de introducir instrumentistas en la clausura, las ejecuciones instrumentales y polifónicas han sido interpretadas por especialistas profesionales. Pero, en honor de las monjas cistercienses de las Huelgas, sólo voces de mujer resuenan en esta grabación, y éstas procuraron impregnarse previamente de la pura religiosidad que el Códice, las monjas y las Huelgas mismas respiran mansamente.

ROBERTO PLA, vol. 5, El Códice de las Huelgas