Sibil•la Ensemble: Viriditas
TRPTK

It's one thing for a pianist to conjure the spirit of the time associated with Beethoven or Bach; it's quite another for a group to make the chants and secular songs of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries feel like newly born creations. That's something Sibil•la Ensemble resplendently achieves, however, on its debut album Viriditas. Founded in 2021 by singer and gothic harpist Kristia Michael, the outfit features her with recorder player Marguerite Maire, medieval lutist Jeremy Bass, percussionist Ivan Gianakis, hurdy-gurdy player Sanne van Gend, and Andrew Hopper, who's credited with voice, vielle, cittern, and rebec recorder. Even though state-of-the-art recording equipment was utilized to capture the group's performances, the medieval music featured on Viriditas feels wholly authentic and true to the era when it appeared. The release is available, by the way, in the standard audio formats but also as an audiovisual album featuring performances captured at the fifteenth-century Westerkerk in the Dutch city of Enkhuizen.

The group's name derives from the Sibyls, female prophetesses revered for their divine insights and ability to bridge mortal and divine realms. Consistent with that, the album includes three pieces by Hildegard von Bingen, the German Benedictine abbess, composer, and mystic who was also called the ‘Sibyl of the Rhine.' In her belief system, Viriditas stands for the life-giving energy permeating the natural world as well as a divine force blurring the boundaries between humanity and nature. The concept is both evoked in a cover image that shows Michael seemingly merging with dense foliage and in the album's songs, which, originating out of Germany, Spain, France, and Cyprus, are homages to the life-giving properties of nature as embodied by the Sybils. An impressive degree of scholarship is exemplified by the programme and the histories associated with it, aspects made clear by the texts that provide clarifying context for the selections. Appreciation for what Sibil•la Ensemble accomplishes is enhanced by the inclusion of the songs' original lyrics and English translations.

Each von Bingen selection deals with a different dimension of experience. In “O virtus Sapientiae,” Sapientiae symbolizes divine wisdom, knowledge, and understanding and is the medium through which God communicates with humanity. While her second song, “O nobilissima viriditas,” centres itself directly on Viriditas and the idea of nature as a divine and eternal life force, the final one, “Karitas Habundat,” shifts the focus to Divine Love. In pairing Sapientiae and Karitas with Viriditas, the bond between humanity, wisdom, nature, and the divine is accentuated and affirmed. A potent spell is cast immediately when Michael's haunting voice initiates “O virtus Sapientiae” with a hurdy-gurdy drone as its partner, and the vocal unfurls in a stream of lines that are by turns melismatic and ululating. The instrumental meditation “O nobilissima viriditas” is arresting too, in this case for the stark beauty of its recorder melodies and the percussive punctuations that accompany them. At eight minutes, “Karitas Habundat” is the album's longest setting, but the extended duration maximizes the droning meditation's impact and its slow transformation into a spirited dance piece.

With musical notation dedicated to the Virgin Mary, two songs from the 420 associated with the thirteenth-century collection Cantigas de Santa Maria are included. The connection to the album concept is in the supernatural conception of Jesus Christ through the union of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and more generally in the coming together of the divine and human realms. The instrumental “Gran poder a de mantar” enters with authority, all forceful rhythms and recorder, vielle, and percussion. In the second song, “Rósa das rósas,” the Virgin Mary appears as the “Rose without Thorns,” an angelic figure marked by innocence, beauty, and chastity. In this case, Michael gives strong voice to the song's folk-chant melodies with recorder, vielle, percussion, and Hopper's voice as her partners.

Still performed today during August in the Spanish town of Elche, "El Misteri d'Elx O Arbre Sanct" is a medieval liturgical drama about the death and Assumption of the Virgin Mary. After a lamenting tone is established, Michael's voice enters stealthily to engage in a woeful dialogue with Maire's recorder that could have taken place centuries ago. Two traditionals appear, “Song of Klidonas” and “Parakalo tin Panayia,” the first concerned with an annual ritual conducted in ancient Cyprus involving village girls drawing objects from a water pitcher to foretell persons' fates and the second having to do with Cypriot orchards that recall the Garden of Eden and the medieval concept of Hortus Conclusus where Mary's innocence was protected. After “Song of Klidonas” is introduced beautifully by medieval lute, the setting takes flight with a passionate vocal by Michael and insistent rhythmic thrust by the ensemble. Presented alone at first, the singer infuses “Parakalo tin Panayia” with a primal, almost animalistic character before lilting percussion enters to support her chant-like expressions.

May 2024