Stella Maris
medieval music ensemble
presents
Medieval Loves : the Agony and the Ecstasy
This programme comprises a mixture of secular and sacred works, mainly from thirteenth-century northern France.
Several are from the ‘motet’ genre, in which contrasting lyrics are layered together, producing a song that is polytextual,
polythematic, polyphonic and multilingual. The programme – as one would expect from the European Middle Ages –
focuses mainly on ‘Love of the Lady’, be she an earthly beauty (all types of women, from nobility to shepherdesses are
desired), or be she the Virgin Mary, Queen of Heaven. There will also be two troubadour love chansons from Occitania
(Southern France) and some pieces from England (including a very British complaint about the weather!), in Old English,
Latin, and Anglo-Norman.
Trois sereus, seur rive mer
Three sisters, by the seashore, express their different perspectives on love. The youngest rejoices that she ‘has a dark
lover’; the middle sister lusts for her lover, Robin; and the cautious elder sister warns that love is easily lost. These three
contrasting voices are set above a line of chant that is taken from the liturgy for Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit caused
men to speak in many different tongues for the purpose of spreading the gospel. The chant functions as an ironic comment
on the frenzied babblings of the three sisters, who are more concerned with earthly romance than with spiritual matters.
Volez oyer
Volez oyer is an Anglo-Norman part-song that tells a tale of unrequited love. Gynot implores his beloved to return his
affections, singing: ‘my sweet little snub-nose, have pity on your lover!’
Plus Bele que Flor
This Parisian motet compares and contrasts three different types of womanhood, describing each with floral imagery. The
upper voice represents the Virgin Mary, who is the ‘flower of paradise’; with typical medieval pathetic fallacy, the middle
voice is prompted by the return of springtime flowers to sing of his courtly Lady; the lower voice sings of a knight
gathering flowers in a meadow – he also wants to take the ‘flower’ of the shepherdess he finds there. This is all
underpinned with a piece of liturgical chant ‘FLOS FILIUS EIUS’, (‘the flower is her son’) which refers to the Virgin
Mary bearing Christ, as a branch bears a flower.
J’ai les Maus/Que Ferai/IN SECULUM
The joy that comes from trusting in God’s love is contrasted with the futility of chasing a worldly beloved love in this three
part, Parisian motet. The top voice of this motet laments that his unrequited love will be the death of him, and the middle
voice presents a similarly-themed lyric, declaring: ‘the glance of her green eyes will kill me!’ The sing is underpinned with
a section of chant taken from the liturgy for Easter Day, the text of which celebrates the faithfulness of God, saying that
His ‘love and mercy endure forever’.
C’est la Gieus
C’est la Gieus is a dance-song in which the singer boasts that she can have love ‘at her will, down there in the meadow’.
Women took centre-stage in dance-songs: the leader – the ‘Queen of the Dance’ – would have led an ensemble with ‘call
and response’ lyrics, in a circle dance known as a carole. The carole was a community celebration that provided the social
space for youths to meet, and even find future spouses. But these dances often led to debauchery, and were condemned by
preachers.
Li jalous/Tuil c’il qui sunt enamourat/VERITATEM
This piece begins as another dance-song, in which the ‘Queen of the Dance’ calls for lovers to join the celebrations and for
the jealous to be ‘driven away with a stick’. It then moves into more formal composition, which juxtaposes the original
dance-song with a similarly-themed lyric. In this new lyric, ‘the jealous wear a horn in the middle of their foreheads’, and
the Queen tells the dancers to ‘kick them, as you would a boy!’ These riotous goings on are set above a piece of chant from
the Assumption liturgy, which celebrates the Virgin Mary’s coronation as Queen of Heaven. The Queen of the Dance, her
followers and her adversaries, function as allegorical representations of the Virgin, her Christian devotees, and those who
are banished from the heavenly party.
Flos ut Rosa Floruit
The Incarnation and birth of Christ is celebrated in this Parisian conductus. It makes reference to the Old Testament Isaiah
prophecy that Abraham and his descendants would bear a flower, upon which ‘the Spirit of God would rest’. According to
Christian interpretation, this prophecy was fulfilled when Mary bore Christ. So the lyrics of this song begin: ‘the rose
bloomed when the Virgin Mary bore the saviour’.
Douay Robin/ Sancta Mater
In this English piece, the upper voice prays to the Virgin Mary, remembering her role at the Incarnation and Crucifixion,
while the lower voice sings the haunting and mysterious refrain: ‘Douay Robin, the child will weep’.
Coventry Carol
From the fifteenth-century Coventry Mystery Plays, this haunting lament presents a mother’s perspective on Herod’s
Massacre of the Innocents, from which Jesus was spared by his parents’ flight to Egypt after Joseph was warned in a
dream. Despite the Massacre of the Innocents being traditionally remembered each January, Stella Maris could not pass up
the opportunity to perform the Coventry Carol whilst in Coventry today!
Instrumental pieces
Tant es gaya
An emotive twelfth-century troubadour dansa, Tant es gaya is an archetypal troubadour chanson for his Lady. She is
worshiped as though a pseudo-divinity. The troubadour says that she is ‘the embodiment of virtue, she has no equal, she
has all perfection and unchanging virtue.’
On Parole
This motet depicts the cacophonous chaos of a medieval Parisian marketplace. The song is underpinned by a street seller’s
cry, advertising ‘Fresh strawberries and juicy mulberries!’, while the upper voices celebrate Parisian wine, women and
food, with some tongue-twisting lyrics.
Donna pos
The troubadour declares his eternal love and servitude to his Lady in this dansa from Occitatnia. He compares his feelings
to those of Romance heroes Eric, for his beloved Enid, and Tristan for Isolde.
O Maria Stella Maris
O Maria Stella Maris is a fourteenth-century English conductus setting of a marian prayer. Three voices dovetail into one
another, interspersing sections of textless music and lyrics that invoke the Virgin, as the ‘flower of mankind’, ‘the lily of
purity’, ‘the rose of patience’, and ‘the burning bush’, to intercede with her son on behalf of mankind.
Salva Nos
This Anglo-Norman dance-song is a Stella Maris favourite, and is the piece from which the ensemble takes its name. The
verses tell how the Virgin Mary fulfilled Old Testament prophecies by conceiving without a male, and praise her for
remaining ever-virgin. The refrain means: ‘Save us, Star of the Sea and Queen of Heaven!’
Miri it is
Miri it is levels an (age) Old English complaint about the weather, and is another ensemble favourite. Eight-hundred years
old, it is so delightfully British in character that it could have been written yesterday! Some of the Anglo-Saxon vocabulary
will be decipherable to modern ears.
The programme will also be punctuated by some medieval instrumental music on harp, vielle and recorder and frame
drum, including an English Estampie that is our island’s oldest extant instrumental work, and a fourteenth-century Italian
piece, Lamento di Tristan/La Rotta.
Stella Maris formed in 2000 at the University of Birmingham, where the ensemble received tuition from Vivien Ellis
and Giles Lewin of The Dufay Collective. They are an ensemble of singers, instrumentalists, composers and
scholars, who focus on Medieval and Renaissance English, French and Spanish music. They usually perform in and
around the Midlands.
Rachel Davies - voice
Kate Wilkins – voice and percussion
Lizzy Nunns - vielle and voice,
Steph West - harp and voice,
Sonja Froebel - percussion, recorder and voice