Music Of The Middle Ages, Vol. 3 Las Cantigas De Santa Maria - Del Rey Alfonso El Sabio

"In the thirteenth century Alfonso the Wise brought together the greatest in Christian, Mozarabic, Jewish, and Arab culture and art -- and this is evident in the structure and cadence of the Marian celebratory anthology he compiled. These Marian songs are not in Alfonso's Castilian tongue, but in the Galician, which is more closely allied to Latin. These songs, Las Cantigas de Santa Maria, of simple purity and complex beauty, have been issued by Lyrichord, a recording company to which those of us who draw sustenance from earlier musical sources owe much ... these, sung by that remarkable countertenor Russell Oberlin, with lute accompaniment of Joseph Iadone, surpass them [other American recordings of the Cantigas]. The universality of music in the Middle Ages can also be discovered in two other Lyrichord issues -- English Medieval Songs of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and English Polyphony of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In these Russell Oberlin also sings, in that almost vibrato-less mode which was the voice of medieval music. These are records to treasure." The court of Del Rey Alfonso El Sabio (a.k.a: "El Sabio the Wise"), ruler of Spain from 1252 until 1284, was the center of a great output of intellectual and artistic activity. The twelve songs (or "Cantigas") on this recording are some of the fruits of that activity, and certainly must rank among the most beautiful melodies ever written for voice. These works, sung in the original Galician language in which they were written, are exquisitely performed by the legendary countertenor Russell Oberlin, possibly the greatest countertenor of our century, with Joseph Iadone, lute, under the direction of Saville Clark. Includes extensive liner notes by Saville Clark, Ernesto G. Da Cal, with translations from Galician by Murrey Hargrove with Aurelio M. Espinosa.