03.16.2008

New Release March 2008: «FILIA PRAECLARA»

Music from 13th adn 14th Century Polish Clarisse Convents, Ensemble Peregrina

Two eminent medieval figures loom large in the program «Filia praeclara»: Saint Clara of Assisi (1194–1253), who together with Saint Francis founded the Clarisse Order, and Kinga of Hungary (circa 1224–1292, canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1999). She was the wife of Duke Boleslaw V, and under their reign Poland had a period of cultural prosperity with important cultural centers of great influence with extremely productive scriptoria.

The music from Polish Clarisse convents, a fascinating and widely undocumented heritage, is one focal point of this program. The multilayered spiritual and musical world of Polish Clarisse convents - like Stary Ascz - is subtly brought to life by ensemble Peregrina; with musical pieces found only here and thus presumably mainly these convents' own compositions, with elaborate polyphonic settings of fragments of Kinga's «Magnus Liber» that have been painstakingly reconstructed for this program, and finally with monodic sequences for the patron of the Order, Saint Clara, and other liturgical chants from the Clarisse Order.