Music from the chansonnier of the Prince of the Morea.

All of the music on this CD is taken from one source - the Manuscript du Roi, the earlier parts of which were set down in the second half of the 13th century. The manuscript is created for William de Villehardouin, the Prince of the Morea (Southern Greece) and travelled through Italy and France acquiring more music as it went along. The resulting manuscript offers more than six hundred songs and, importantly, the first evidence of instrumental music (11 examples).

The CD features 17 songs and instrumental tunes from the manuscript performed on harp, gittern, symphony, flutes, whistles, bagpipes, frame drum and voices. The intention is to recreate the grand high style of the trouveres and troubadours as heard in the courtly society of the 13th century.

Please click on the available links below for sound file samples. 

This CD features the following tracks:

1 Au novel tans
2 Septime estampie real
3 Dansse real
4 Chanterai por mon corage
5 Amors m'art con fuoc am flama
6 Quinte estampie real
7 Non es meraville
8 Dolerousement commence
9 A chanter mes
10 Quarte estampie real
11 A la rousee / Ab insurgentibus
12 L'autrier par la matinee
13 Les oiseillons de mons pais
14 Pax in nomine domini
15 Sexte estampie real
16 Danse real
17 Loiaus amors