ANTIGAS was formed at the end of 1990 and takes its name from the Spanish, meaning ‘songs’. The group plays mediæval and folk‑ based music from Europe, Asia and the Middle East, Cusing percussion, recorder and mediæval string instruments. 1 Istanpitta Ghaetta Ganassi, vielle, lute, oud, darabouka 6'51" 2 Latin Kingdoms Ganassi, vielle, lute, oud, darabouka 8'01" 3 Stella Splendens lute, oud, voice flute, voice 3'30" 4 Los set goyts hurdy‑gurdy, Ganassi, lute, darabouka, tambourine 2'33" 5 Cantiga 50 Tibetan singing bowl, vielle, rebec, lute, oud, darabouka 7'28" 6 Ecco la Primavera (Francesco Landini) darabouka, rebec, vielle, lute, oud 1'04" 7 Tels rit au main qui au soir pleure (Guillaume de Machaut) Ganassi, lute, oud, darabouka 3'41" 8 Saladin lute, oud, vielle, Indian ankle bells, darabouka, rebec 11'15" 9 Crusader’s Lament vielle, rebec, voice 5'44" 10 A mon dan soy esforsieus (Guiraut Riquier) vielle, lute, oud 4'07" 11 The Silk Road Ganassi, darabouka, bells, clapping sticks 7'44" 12 Istanpitta Belicha Ganassi, vielle, lute, oud, darabouka, rebec 9'02" P 1993 MOVE RECORDS MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA … move.com.au ILK AND SPICE reflects a musical Niggunim. voices and is in the AbbaA form of a ballata journey through mediaeval Europe, Stella Splendens and Los set goyts are … Its atypical brevity and simplicity recall the Asia and the Middle East and is anonymous Spanish songs of the fourteenth dance music from which the ballata originated. inspired by the image of a journey century found in the manuscript Llibre Vermell Tels rit au main qui au soir pleure is a along the Silk Road which was made (The Red Book). These songs were written for French complainte composed by Guillaume by European adventurers in search of the riches mediaeval pilgrims journeying to the shrine of de Machaut. This piece is part of his collection ofS the Orient. These journeys created a meeting the Virgin Mary in Montserrat near Barcelona. Le Remède de Fortune (c.1349), in which he of diverse cultures and resulted not only in the This was a very important centre of worship for expresses a typically courtly attitude to Love import of exotic cloths and spices but also in all of Catalonia. There was a chapel dedicated and Fortune. the exchange and interaction of musical ideas. to the Virgin Mary at Montserrat by the end of Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria (1175‑93), The dances Istanpitta Ghaetta and the ninth century and a little monastery was was the arch‑rival of Richard I of England and Istanpitta Belicha are part of a collection founded around 1027. succeeded in bringing the Muslim factions preserved in the Italian manuscript London Cantiga 50 is from a collection of 400 together to fight against the Europeans in the Add. 29987, held in the British Library. Spanish monophonic songs in the lavishly Crusades. The Saladin bracket thus begins with Although the manuscript dates from the late illustrated manuscript, Cantigas de Santa a traditional taqsim or improvisation moving fourteenth century, the music it contains was Maria. The collection was assembled at the into a metered traditional Syrian melody which likely to have been in popular circulation court of Alfonso X “el Sabio”, King of Castile is then followed by a Turkish melody. The throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. and Léon (1252‑84) and a great patron of the original words of the Turkish melody are a play Johannes de Grocheo, writing around 1300, Arts. The collection recounts miracles of the on the names of the different scales used in the explains that the istanpitta is characterised by Virgin Mary. Every tenth song (of which this is piece. Arabic influence is prevalent throughout having several puncta of different lengths, each one) punctuates the series with a more general music of the Middle Ages and was spread by ending with a common refrain that has open song in her praise. In addition to the unity of way of the Moorish occupation of Southern and closed endings. Ghaetta and Belicha follow their subject matter, the Cantigas display a Spain (711‑1492). this formal structure exactly, but their melodic uniformity of poetic and musical form. Most Troubadour influence in the Middle content seems to conform more to Arabic poems have a recurring refrain, and follow Ages was very important as much music models than to Western European ones. the overall form AbbaA, the same pattern was dispersed through the travels of these Latin Kingdoms includes three monophonic as the French virelai and the Italian ballata. wandering minstrels. Crusader’s Lament is hebrew melodies which contain influences A short hebrew melody finishes the bracket, a selection of two earlier secular works from from Europe, the Near East, and parts of complementing the Cantiga. the height of troubadour poetry; Pax in Africa, reflecting the extent to which the Jewish Ecco la Primavera is representative of Nomine by Marcabru and Ja nun hons pris by musical tradition has been shaped by the the new style of composition that came to Richard the Lionheart (second part arranged historic migrations of the Jewish people. This be centred on Florence in the late fourteenth by J.A. Clingan). The first is a crusading song, tradition has largely been transmitted orally century: the Ars Nova. Francesco Landini encouraging people to go on the crusades, from one generation to the next. The first of (1325‑1397) was perhaps the most lyrically likening the experience to a purification ritual. these three melodies is still popular today in elegant and refined of all Italian polyphonists It is believed that the latter work was written by Israel. The second and third are known as in this period. Ecco la Primavera is for two Richard the Lionheart and his minstrel Blodwel. While Richard was held captive in also a mode of expression vital Germany after the Crusades, his to the community experience. minstrel went around to all the Percussion is an integral part of castles playing this song to find their music. The bracket concludes his king. A mon dan soy esforsieus with an ancient folk dance 7 is by Guiraut Riquier, a prolific fragment from Greece in 8 time. Occitan poet of the latter part of the thirteenth century (c. 1254‑84). Ganassi and Voice Flute The war in 1209 between North There is much archaeological and South (Albigensian Crusade) evidence of early recorders in the utterly destroyed the civilised Ancient World, such as the bone society in which the troubadour pipe fistulae. The Ancient view movement had flourished. Most that flute playing among ordinary troubadours fled to Sicily, northern adults was in some way “perilous Italy and Spain. Riquier, ‘the last of to moral behaviour” had been the troubadours’, was no exception; dispelled by the thirteenth century. he spent much of his short life in The earliest surviving drawing of a Spain. recorder is to be found in a twelfth The Silk Road forms a dream century Psalter in the Library of reflection of many different Glasgow. A number of different cultures. The underlying recorders are used in Cantigas: a connection is the element of Renaissance instrument with two percussion that retains stability. joints, A466 and A415, of a Ganassi The bracket begins with a Type by Michael Grinter (1989), and Cambodian wind ensemble piece. a Voice Flute in D by Fred Morgan It is based on the equidistant scale, (1991). The Voice Flute was used with an equidistant tendency in in the French Baroque period and the upper three notes. To Western often took the place of a transverse ears it sounds remarkably like the flute. blues as the American Negroes have exploited the neutral tones in Vielle their traditional music. This piece is The vielle (fithele, viella, followed by two contrasting Hebrew mediaeval fiddle) was the most dances. The African rhythms are widely used and esteemed of from Ghana. Music for Africans is mediaeval instruments. From the not only an object of beauty but thirteenth century onwards, it became one of the most popular instruments king, sultan or emir of musical instruments. Asia, it was widely adopted in Europe after the in both England and on the Continent. It was The first written documentation on the Oud is bow’s establishment in the tenth and eleventh an instrument reserved for the aristocracy, of the ninth and tenth centuries, although the centuries. During the Middle Ages the rebec although minstrels regularly played the vielle instrument is thought to have been in Southern was a recognised instrument of professional at mealtimes. The vielle came in a variety Iraq from the seventh century. It spread to the minstrels, who, dressed in special livery, played of sizes and shapes ‑ oval, spade‑shaped, West by way of Andalusia; it was introduced in royal courts or were attached to a town or pear‑shaped or waisted ‑ and with various to Europe by the eleventh century after the noble household. In rustic society the rebec was arrangements of tailpiece, bridge, fingerboard conquest and occupation of Spain by the prominent at village revels, especially at feasts and tuning pegs. The number of strings varied Moors. and dances. from three to five. It can be played either under the arm or vertically on the lap. Hurdy-gurdy Percussion: The hurdy‑gurdy is a mediaeval stringed Arabic drums: darabouka Lute instrument in which the sound is produced by tambourine The lute is a plucked instrument with a the friction of a wooden wheel and the pitch is Tibetan singing bowl large round back, and was one of the most determined by stopping the strings with rods Indian ankle bells important European instruments for nearly actuated by keys.