FLOS FLORUM - MUSIC OF THE BOHEMIAN GOTHIC / Kvinterna Ensemble

1. Christus surrexit 3:19

2. Resultet gens angelica 5:19

3. Flos florum - Quem elegit 3:42

4. Iacob scalam 1:54

5. Sophia nasci (instr.) 2:28

6. En etas iam aurea 4:57

7. Stola Jacob 5:44

8. Unde gaudent angeli (instr.) 1:49

9. O Ihesu vivens hostia 3:12

10. In hoc anni circulo 3:23

11. Serena mente 7:10

12. Sampsonis honestissima 3:34

13. Angelica Christi turma 8:52

14. Buoh všemohúcí 2:33

Kvinterna:

Hana Blochová - vocal, gothic harp, organ portative

Petr Vyoral - fiddle, kvinterna, medieval lute

Pavel Polášek - shawn, kornamusa, animal horns, recorders, flute, hackbrett, vocal

Lubomír Holzer - percussion

+ guests: Michael Pospíšil - vocal

Jiří Hodina - vocal

Jiřina Musilová - hurdy-gurdy

Vítězslav Janda - tambourine

The words 'Bohemian Gothic' tend to make one think of a Gothic cathedral, perhaps even Karlstein Castle and the paintings of Master Theodoric or an illuminated page of parchment from a book with pointy letters and square music notes, which is decorated with a picture of, for example, King David playing a small harp. Pictures, sculptures and churches are easy to imagine, but 'Gothic music', the music that was made in this period and was a regular part of life at the time, is harder to imagine. It usually seems more alien to our ears than the visual arts and architecture of the period seem to our eyes. Moreover, no medieval musical instrument has been preserved in its authentic form, and the notation of 'Gothic music' is usually imprecise and often fails to capture all the aspects of the music as it was meant to be played. Anybody who wants to study 'Bohemian Gothic', whether a specialist in period notation or an interpreter, must, on the basis of his or her own experience, try and find its most likely form.

Our recording includes mostly polyphonic songs. All have Latin texts written for the Church, but sometimes they seem to have more in common with the popular music of their day. One may distinguish two basic kinds of song among them. The earlier in stylistic terms are the songs with two equal voices, the conductus (En etas, In hoc anni, Resultet and Sampsonis). They were for the most part meant to be sung; their remote model is thirteenth-century music from Western Europe. As distinct from them, several other compositions seem to imitate French songs of the fourteenth century (Stola Jacob, Angelica, Flos florum and Quem elegit), which tend to have an instrumental basis; above the longer notes in the lower accompanying voices there is a richly ornamented melody based on improvisation. Today the form is known as cantilena, but in its day it was called rondellus; its secular origin, or at least character, is demonstrated by the repeated calls by the Prague synod (1366 and 1412) for songs of the rondellus type not to be sung in church. Some songs combine elements of both the conductus and the rondellus/cantilena (for example, Serena mente).