 A travers le thème éternel de l'amour, amour profane (dans la lignée des troubadours italiens) ou sacré (pour le Christ et la Vierge Marie), chanté par les laudesi, ces cortèges de pénitents inspirés par les nouveaux ordres mendiants, la soprano et musicologue Simona Gatto nous introduit dans une période charnière de l'histoire de la musique en Italie : celle qui voit le passage de la monodie, encore exclusive au 13e siècle, à la polyphonie du 14e siècle, une Ars Nova à l'italienne. C'est en effet du 14e siècle que datent les plus anciens manuscrits de musique orale non rituelle. La musique trecento est illustrée par une célèbre ballata du génial organiste aveugle, le florentin Francesco Landini. Et l'ars subtilior, cet art "plus subtil", d'une complexité raffinée, par un canon à trois voix du compositeur et théoricien réputé Matteo da Perugia. S'ajoutent bien sûr de nombreuses compositions anonymes, non attribuées dans les manuscrits qui nous sont parvenus. Faisant alterner danses et plaintes amoureuses, airs tristes et gais, pièces vocales et instrumentales, cet album est très varié et vivant. On peut certes regretter que Simona Gatto chante seule, la polyphonie du trecento étant avant tout vocale, mais son chant, bien secondé par ses complices, est vraiment poignant, et redonne pleine vie à ces musiques oubliées, sept siècles plus tard. (Marc Galand) The songs on this album come from a unique and extraordinary period of our history, between the 13th and 14th centuries, which saw the rise of Comuni and Signorie in central-northern Italy: in the years of truce after the end of struggles between the Empire and the Papacy, Italian national sentiment flared up in great spiritual, artistic, political and social fervor. In this fertile environment, a new musical art flourished, the Ars Nova. In contrast to the liturgical polyphony of the Ars Antiqua (12th-13th centuries), which from the first experiments with organa culminated in the highly refined practice of the School of Notre Dame, the term Ars Nova designates the development of secular polyphonic music from the 13th century in France and since the 14th century in Italy. The idea of dedicating an album to the theme of love in Italian music of the 14th century might seem a bit overused, given how rich and varied is the discography in this regard. But the reflection on love undeniably continues to be central in our lives, just as it was for the men and women of seven hundred years ago, whose voices in “Ch’amor mi prese” we interpret and we infuse with new life ad meaning. There are elements of human nature whose essence does not change over the centuries. The feeling of love is one of these: it is expressed through new forms and different codes, but its most intimate essence is not affected by the passage of time. It does not matter whether the object of love, or its ispiration, is human or divine: it produces in those who feel it that inexplicable and overwhelming bewilderment that poets, writers, composers, philosophers and mystics in every time and place have felt to express in words or music.
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