Gennaro Becchimanzi - Von Speyer - St. Francis Of Assisi & St. Anthony [CD]

Newly recorded at the Basilica in Assisi, the birthplace of the Franciscan order, a comprehensive set of the 'Rhymed Offices' chanted by religious communities to bear witness to the miracles and virtues of St Francis and of St Antony of Padua. During the Middle Ages, the Church established the custom of chanting original poetic texts during the Hours of the Office (in particular, Vespers, Matins and Lauds). Their purpose was to construct a story which linked biblical texts, such as psalms and canticles, to the deeds and virtues of the Saints of the Church. Those Offices dedicated to St Francis of Assisi and to St Antony of Padua are attributed to Brother Julian, a musician-poet monk born in the Rhineland town of Speyer between 1175 and 1180. Most of his life was spent in Paris; he took formal Franciscan orders around 1225, and died in 1250. Saint Francis had died in October 1226. A biography was soon produced, by Tommaso of Celano, and Julian seems to have based his Offices on this text; they were widely sung in monasteries and convents across Europe from 1235 onwards. Meanwhile, the Offices dedicated to St Antony, who died in 1231 and was canonized the following year, seem to be entirely Julian's work, both text and music. Julian writes in flowing Latin iambic pentameter verse, and composes in a style increasingly detached from the formulas of Gregorian chant proper, inflected by the contemporary emergence of polyphony, exemplified by the music of Perotin in works such as Sederunt principes. The musicians and singers of the Nova Schola Gregoriana of Verona have recorded several volumes of Gregorian chant over the course of their 40-year history, while performing at major international festivals in Paris, Avignon and Cremona, and touring Japan and the United States. They also feature on Brilliant Classics albums of organ masses by Fasolo, Frescobaldi and Merulo. Their new account of these meditative Offices is impeccably authentic in style, text and origin.