Ambroisie

Programme

Extrait : Kyrie eleison

 the chant of the Templars

1. Antiphona : Crucem sanctam
2. Responsorium: Benedicat nos deus
3. Responsorium: Honor virtus et potestas
4. Antiphona : Te Deum patrem ingenitum
5. Antiphona : Media vita in morte sumus
6. Kyrie eleison
7. Antiphona : Da pacem Domine
8. Antiphona : Salve Regina

Extrait : Salve Regina

Ensemble Organum
Marcel Pérès
Sortie: 10 septembre 2004
Réf: AMB

CD momentanement indisponible

Critiques

« La beauté vocale des interventions solistes, solennelles et fragiles à la fois (dans le Magnificat en particulier), apporte un contraste bienvenu aux longs tutti d’unisson chantés à pleine voix. » - Marc Desmet

« La transe maîtrisée des interprètes gagne immanquablement l’auditeur le plus blasé qui, en dépit d’une temporalité d’un autre âge (près d’un quart d’heure pour le Magnificat !), se retrouvera galvanisé au contact de ce chant comme le furent ces singuliers chanoines du Temple. » - Xavier Bisaro

Journal LE POINT
« … Ce chant énergique et convaincu tranche avec une idée trop uniformisée et blanche de la musique médiévale. » - Philippe Venturini

Présentation

The chant of the templars
L'office de la Trinité et de la Transfiguration
The holy sepulchre of Jerusalem in the twelfth century

The manuscript we used for this recording dates from the third quarter of the twelfth century and comes from the basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Having been purchased by the Duc d'Aumale in the mid-nineteenth century, it is now preserved at the Château de Chantilly.It is breviary , written down when Parisian musical circles were just beginning to formulate square notation. All the vocal subtleties of the chant can be seen in it. In this respect the volume is quite exceptional. since few examples of French music from this period are still extant.

In 1128, when the concil of Troyes granted them a rule drawn up under the direction of Bernard of Clairvaux, their attachment to the liturgy of the Holy Sepulchre  was clearly stated, and became the distinctive and specific mark of their canonical condition. "You who have renounced your own will, and you others who, for the salvation of your souls, serve the Sovereign King with your horses and weapons, must with pure and pious longing follow Matins and the Divine Service in their entirety, according to the canonical institutions andthe Uses of the regular masters of the Holy City".

However, even in times of war, the Templars were assiduous in thier practrice of the liturgy. During the siege of Damietta in the Fifth Crusade, a night raid by the Muslims was foiled because the Templars were celebrating the Matins in the tent that served as the Order's chapel. Thus they were able immediatly to repulse the attack.

Marcel Pérès