Corina Marti – Septem dies – Music at Prague University 1360-1460 (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

The music played at Prague university according to mid-15th-century sources, following the Hussite wars and the institution’s renovation. The album provides a wide array of liturgical music, sacred pieces by young clerics, as well as music the university students played for entertainment. It features Gregorian chant, anonymous creations and compositions by Bernard de Cluny, Petrus Wilhelmi de Grudencz and Antonio da Cividale.

Contemporary university students would be hard pressed to imagine life without social networking on their smartphones. In the 15th century, the role of social networking was pursued by communal singing, bringing the students together and being part of their everyday life on a variety of occasions. The foundation charter of the Reček College of Prague university (1438) stipulated for the students the duty to perform music every day within the liturgical services. On the other hand, secular music, including instrumental and dance, was prohibited (especially playing resonant instruments, singing in the vernacular languages and ribald songs), but the students constantly bent the rules.

The liturgy prescribed for each day of the week served as the basis for the repertoire of the present recording, which, however, also affords scope to the secular music that in all likelihood the students used to play during their leisure time beyond the walls of the college. The unique album of Schola Gregoriana Pragensis and their very special guest, the clavisimbalist Corina Marti (La Morra), is being released along with an extensive study providing a comprehensive depiction of the 15th-century university music life. The fruit of the collaboration between musicians and musicologists from across Europe is a book with this recording, an artefact that will become a natural part of the library of every connoisseur and lover of medieval music.

Tracklist:
01. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Slyšiž země – Song (03:35)
02. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Kyrie pro defunctis (01:09)
03. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Memento etiam Domine (01:12)
04. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Veni sancte spiritus et in me robur auge Cantio (02:19)
05. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Miretur omnis nacio – Cantio (Instrumental) (02:01)
06. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Degentis vita – Cum vix artidici – (Vera pudicitia) Motet (02:42)
07. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Deus in adiutorium Versus (00:32)
08. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Quia devotis laudibus / Ps. 147 Lauda Ierusalem Antiphona cum psalmo (02:23)
09. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Benedicamus Domino Versus (01:38)
10. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Nunc festum celebremus Cantio (02:05)
11. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Ein schöne liebe Jungfraw Cantio (01:25)
12. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Vsed ďábel babě na plece Song (01:49)
13. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Sanctus scholasticum (01:22)
14. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Ora pro nobis Antiphona (00:56)
15. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Martino divo presuli Cantio (01:04)
16. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Generari voluit – Cantio (Instrumental) (01:56)
17. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Caro mea vere est cibus Graduale (02:01)
18. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Jesus Christus nostra salus Cantio (01:41)
19. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Esto quod expertus sis in trivio Cantio de disciplinis studiorum (02:37)
20. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Apollinis eclipsatur – Zodiacum signis – In omnem terram (Bernard de Cluny) Motet (02:59)
21. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Et factum est postquam in captivitatem Lamentationes Jeremiae prophetae (03:20)
22. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Christus Rex pacificus (00:59)
23. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Quid admiramini Cantio (02:08)
24. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Salve sancta parens Introitus (01:56)
25. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Poligena exanimes (Petrus Wilhelmi de Grudencz) Cantio (02:20)
26. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – O regina lux divina Cantio (04:05)
27. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Jour a jour Rondeau (03:15)
28. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Sacerdotes Dei Cantio (01:53)
29. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Asperges me hyssopo Antiphona (02:37)
30. Gregoriana Pragensis Schola – Gloria in excelsis Deo (Antonio da Cividale) (03:35)