This release of Latvian medieval music on the small Skani label hit the top reaches of British classical charts early in 2021, which perhaps was a surprise to the members of the Schola Cantorum Riga and its director, musicologist Guntars Prānis. However, anyone who samples this fascinating release will be impelled to learn more. Arguably the most significant development in the classical recording industry since the 1990s has been the exploration of "peripheral" traditions of medieval music, which, on closer examination, turn out not to be peripheral at all. The leader in this movement was Jordi Savall, but it is now gaining momentum in places other than Catalonia, and the present release offers an excellent example. Prānis and the seven men of the Schola Cantorum Riga assemble a set of pieces with various origins. Some are Latvian, and others come from manuscripts in Lund, Hamburg, and Limoges. The genres -- chant, conductus, sequence, responsory, hymn, antiphon, and most spectacularly falsobordone or fauxbourdon (or faburden) -- are familiar from other medieval traditions (despite the album's subtitle, the music is not all chant), but everything is performed in the Latvian manner, beginning with the Latvian accent in which the Latin texts are sung. The music is accompanied by instruments, including a hurdy-gurdy, recorders, bagpipes, percussion, and an engrossing box zither called a kukle. The sound is speculative but is intended as an idea of what cathedral music in Riga might have sounded like in late medieval times. The cantus falsobordone Miserere mei incorporates a characteristic Latvian form of text declamation into the harmonies, and this is perhaps a good place to start listening. The sound from Latvia's Great Amber Concert Hall (a name that makes one want to visit) is resonant and rich without losing definition. One may not have known that one wanted an album of Latvian medieval music, but listen and learn. The physical album, with its texts and Prānis' notes, is recommended.
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