Burgos Cathedral Towers, chalk drawing ©eop
Late in 2011 Anonymous 4 issued its second CD of Camino related music, Secret Voices: Music from Las Huelgas c. 1300 (Harmonia Mundi USA HMU 807510). It is not my favorite among their recordings, and its review in BBC Music was nuanced and not entirely positive, but for anyone with an interest in the music of the Camino at the time of its apogee, the CD is a must have.
Several of the few great compilations of medieval and early renaissance music, collections crucial to our understanding of European musical culture in the high Middle Ages, have direct links to the Camino Santiago de Compostela and the pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James. Two of those collections were compiled for religious institutions adjacent and important to the Camino. One is, of course, the Codex Calixtinus usually held as a treasure in the archive of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. (Following its theft last year, its current whereabouts are unknown as far as I can determine.) Early in its career with its original personnel, Anonymous 4, the American female quartet specializing in medieval and renaissance vocal music, recorded a wonderful CD Miracles of Sant’Iago: Music from the Codex Calixtinus (Harmonia Mundi USA).
The second compilation of medieval liturgical music is the Codex las Huelgas assembled at the Convent (Monasterio) of the Huelgas, a lovely set of buildings the Camino Frances passes on its way out of Burgos. The Codex has provided material for numerous recordings, many with titles suggesting a link to the Camino and some quite good. Small samples of the riches of the Codex are readily available, and mixed gender choirs and even all male groups have recorded some of the materials, though the convent was female and evidence suggests that at least some of the musical compositions in the Codex were written for female voices, perhaps, a rarity of the era, even written by women. It is thus a great pleasure to hear a female group of unparalleled technique and expertise in the music of the period record parts of the Codex in the voices the music was written for. Several of the selections on the CD are not included on any other recording I am aware of.
I am not working as their agent, but Ariama, an on-line supplier of physical CDs as well as mp3 and flac downloads, currently has the new album on sale in all three formats. Ariama's website allows one to listen online to samples of many of the albums it has for sale (like the record stores of my childhood with listening booths!), including both of those noted above.
