Forgotten Kingdom Cathare

Montserrat Figueras, Hesperion XXI, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Jordi Savall

Catharism was the name given to a Christian religious sect that appeared in the Languedoc region of Southern France and flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries. Catharism had its roots in the Paulician movement in Armenia and the Bogomils of Bulgaria with whom the Paulicians merged. The Cathars saw matter as intrinsically evil: they denied that Jesus could become incarnate and still be the son of God. The Catholic Church regarded the sect as dangerously heretical. Faced with the rapid spread of the movement across the Languedoc region, the Church called for a crusade, which was carried out by knights from Northern France and Germany and was known as the Albigensian Crusade. The anti-Cathar Albigensian Crusade, and the inquisition which followed it, entirely eradicated the Cathars. The Albigensian Crusade had the effect of greatly weakening the semi-independent southern principalities included in the area of Occitania, such as Toulouse, ultimately bringing them under direct control of the King of France. Occitania, which had the misfortune of being the collateral victim of the Albigensian Crusade, used to be the crossroads of many cultures: Arabic Al-Andalus, Northern France and Flanders, Italy and even Constantinople. From this melting pot emerged a very refined culture, which culminated in the troubadour tradition: it subsequently spread to Italy, Spain and even Greece. Under the influence of the troubadours, related new movements sprang up throughout Europe: the Minnesingers in Germany, trovadorismo in Galicia and Portugal and that of the trouvères in northern France. This album explores the ‘classical' period of the troubadour school around the turn of the 13th century, but also provides us with a comprehensive historical and artistic background of this Golden Age. It is time we remembered this ‘forgotten' kingdom from which so much Western culture evolved.

CD 1:
1. Bulgarische Weise (Taksim und Tanz)
2. Veri dulcis in tempore
3. Instrumentale Klage 1
4. Die drei Prinzipien, aleph, mem, schin (Kabbalistischer Text aus dem Buch der Schöpfung)
5. Reis glorios
6. Payre sant (Rezitierter Text)
7. En to stavro pares tosa (Byzantinisches Lied)
8. Kreuzzugsfanfare
9. Mawachah Chamoulo (Taksim und arabisch-andalusischer Tanz)
10. Instrumentale Klage 2
11. Pos de chantar
12. A chantar m'er de so
13. Epistola ad patrem Bernardum (Rezitierter Text)
14. Mentem meam ledit dolor
15. Ave generosa
16. Consolament (katharisches Gebet)
17. Trauermarsch
18. Heu miser
19. A per pauc de chantar
20. Verbrennung in Troyes
21. El jorn del judizi (Lied der okzitanischen Sibylle)

CD 2:
1. Fanfare
2. Ego enim scio (Rezitierter Text)
3. Quant ay lo mon consirat
4. Mot era dous e plazens
5. E l'abas de Cistels (Vers 4)
6. Nous exhortons (Rezitierter Text)
7. Cant l'apostolis saub (Vers 5)
8. Fanfare und Aufruf zum Kampf
9. Le barnatges de Fransa (Vers 21)
10. Quascus plor e planh
11. Lavaurs fon tan fortz vila (Vers 68)
12. Cruciferi ex precepto (Rezitierter Text)
13. Vai, Hugonet, ses bistensa
14. Bel m'es q'ieu chant e coindei
15. Aissi cum es genser Pascors
16. L'epictafi de S. de Monfort (Vers 208)
17. D'un sirventes far

CD 3:
1. Fanfare
2. Clergue si fan pastor
3. Instrumentale Klage 3
4. Ad exstirpanda (Rezitierter Text)
5. Un sirventes novel vueill comensar
6. Beliche
7. Del tot vey remaner valor
8. Lavandose le mane
9. Pater Noster (katharisches Gebet)
10. Tartarassa ni voutor
11. Audi pontus, audi tellus
12. El Rey de Francia
13. Il n'est pas étonnant (Rezitierter Text)
14. Trauermarsch
15. No puesc sofrir la dolor
16. Instrumentale Klage 4
17. Audi, benigne
18. Ballade de la Pucelle
19. O crudele suplicium
20. Taksim & Makam-i Saba usules Çenber
21. Instrumentale Klage 5
22. O très piteulx de tout espoir fontaine
23. Si ay perdut mon saber

‘Het Vergeten Koninkrijk’ is opnieuw een zeer uitgebreid boek met ruim 550 pagina’s in meerdere talen en drie SACD’s waarin Jordi Savall en Hespèrion XXI de geschiedenis van de Katharen onder de loep nemen. Het gedachtegoed van de Katharen ontstond rond 950 en kwam vooral in de 12e en 13e eeuw tot bloei. Zoals gebruikelijk heeft Jordi Savall allerlei musici en geleerden van andere disciplines geraadpleegd om een zo accuraat beeld te krijgen van deze religieuze groepering en van deze periode. Ook wordt deze geschiedenis zoals gebruikelijk omkleed met muziek uit deze periode, zodat Savall de luisteraar zoals altijd in zijn projecten meeneemt op een muzikale reis door een belangrijke gebeurtenis uit de Europese geschiedenis.