"Nova Stella:
a medieval Italian Christmas"
On the Dorian Discovery label; in stores as of September 15, 1996.
For information on the Harmonia public radio Christmas special based on this program, or how to get that special on your local public radio station, go here.
Program summary:
Christmas, 1223 ... a hermit's cave in Italy. The torchlight revealed a Nativity scene, complete with the manger crib, and actors playing the roles of all the participants, including the ox and ass. Among those present was St. Francis of Assisi, who planned the whole event in order to see "with human eyes" the scene as it was at Christ's birth: the hay, the candlelight, the animals, the manger. Thomas of Celano, in his famous chronicle of Francis' life, speaks of the scene as "a new Bethlehem." The surrounding woods, says Thomas, "rang out with holy songs."To see with human eyes: o experience with great immediacy the love of God; to see Christ the man, Mary the woman. To experience their suffering, to witness firsthand the miracle of the Birth and the Star that led the Magi to the stable at Bethlehem. To see God in the birds, the moon, the stars, the rivers, the snow, the fire in the torch lights over the Nativity scene. This approach to spirituality, inspired and encouraged by the mendicant orders of thirteenth-century Italy, spoke directly to human experience and reached directly into the hearts of people from all walks of life.
The "holy songs" that Francis and the villagers sang on that Christmas night could very well have included the early Laude spirituali, spiritual songs of praise. The poetry of the laude is the oldest repertoire of Italian lyric for which we have extant music. The immediacy of these songs even today allows the listener to experience the breath of spirituality that Francis himself introduced on that medieval Christmas night.
A program of medieval Italian laude spirituali, celebrating the wonders of the Annunciation, Christmas, and Epiphany.
Gloria from Nova Stella.
For concert reviews of this program, go here.
To order this disc from Dorian Group Ltd., go here.