Micrologus; The Road to Santiago

81-03 THE ROAD TO SANTIAGO

Santiago de Compostela—like Rome, like Jerusalem, like the shrine of Thomas à Becket at Canterbury—it was one of the focal points of Christian pilgrimage throughout the Middle Ages. The apostle James, cousin of Jesus, had apparently gone to Spain to preach after the Crucifixion, and, although he returned to Jerusalem, where he was executed by Herodes Agrippa, his remains were brought back to Spain, where they were promptly forgotten for a number of centuries. Miraculously, in the 9th century, his tomb was rediscovered and the shrine of St. James in the Field of Stars, Santiago de Compostela, began to attract pilgrims from all over Europe. The most interesting document which we have from that shrine is a book called the Liber de Sancti Jacobi. Musicologists know it today as the Codex Calixtinus, named after Pope Calixtine II. Essentially, it is a "Michelin Guide" to the mid-12th century in northern Spain. It contains recommendations of the best routes to take towards Santiago, and describes the best buildings, the interesting shrines that should be visited along the way, and gives descriptions of the character—either savory or unsavory—of the people in the regions to be traversed. Of special interest to music historians is the fact that the Liber de Sancti Jacobi contains the first known piece with three independent parts, "Congaudeant catholici” (Let all Catholics, Christians, rejoice together). Here it is performed by the Studio de Frühen Musik, directed by Thomas Binkley.

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Now that we have an idea of what a pilgrim might have heard upon reaching the shrine of Santiago de Compostela, we are going to listen to some pieces that a pilgrim might have heard along the way to that shrine. The first is, in fact, the earliest piece on the program. It pre-dates the first piece by about 40 years. The Codex Calixtinus was compiled in about 1140, and the manuscript from which this piece was taken was compiled around the year 1100. It is said to be from the St. Martial School. St. Martial is a monastery in the south-western part of France. But, in fact, the part of the manuscript that this piece is taken from has recently been shown to have been prepared in Paris for the Abbey of Cluny, so we can imagine that this piece in honor of St. James of Compostela was written by a pilgrim from Paris, around the year 1100. A Pilgrim song from the Abbey of Cluny in Paris, "Resonemus hoc natali.” The performance is by Barbara Thornton and her cohorts of Sequentia.

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By the 13th century, pilgrims towards Santiago de Compostela must often have been entertained by pieces from the Cantigas de Santa Maria (the songs of Holy Mary). Over 400 of these were compiled by the king of Castile and Leon, Alfonso the Wise. This is from the introduction:

"Don Alfonso of Castile of Toledo and Leon, king and lord from Compostela to the kingdom of Aragon, of Cordova, of Jaen, and Seville as well, and who by right is lord of all Romanic peoples, did author this book to the honor and praise of the blessed Virgin Mary, Holy Mother of God, in whom is all his hope.”

Nine out of every ten songs in the collection depicts a miracle which Mary performs in some desperate, and often comic, situation. The Waverly Consort we will hear perform for us the cantiga "A virgen Santa Maria." They are assisted by the modern troubadour Nicholas Kepros, who more recently has received acclaim in the Broadway production of Amadeus. The cantiga tells the story of a miracle, but I will let them explain.

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About 100 years after Alfonso and his cantigas, appeared a small collection of pilgrim songs in the area of northeastern Spain. The collection is known today as the Llibre Vermell (The Red Book of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin at Montserrat). Montserrat had its own pilgrims to the Shrine of the Virgin there, but the tremendous popularity of these songs—and thus the likelihood that they would have been heard by pilgrims on the way to Compostela, as well—is attested to by the fact that two centuries later, the Spanish composer Francisco de Salinas documented the use of the melody of one of the songs in both folk and church music in the area around Salamanca. The song so favored was "Polorum Regina" (Queen of all the heavens, star of the morning, redeem our sins. Before the birth, Virgin, though full of grace you were still immaculate. Star of the morning that redeems our sins). We will listen now to "Polorum Regina," a song from the Llibre Vermell, performed by Montserrat Figueras and Hesperion XX, directed by Jordi Savall.

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You have been listening to songs of medieval pilgrims on the Road to Santiago de Compostela.