The major part of the unique and rare repertoire presented on this album is culled from three important manuscripts, all copied in the second half of the fifteenth century: the Buxheim organ book (Bux, ca. 1470), the Lochamer song book (Loch, ca. 1460), and the Glogauer partbooks (or Zagan partbooks, to use the title favoured in some recent studies).

All three of the books are treasure troves of delightful and unexpected discoveries. Among the composers presented in the French section of this recording are some of the most eminent and well-known musicians of the fifteenth century: Guillaume Du Fay, Gilles Binchois, Antoine Busnois. The works are interspersed with Buxheimer’s free instrumental improvisations, redeuntes and preambula. The former consists of a highly ornamented upper voice flowing against a sustained (or repeated) note in the lower, whereas the latter are essentially fantasia-like pieces divided into several parts with contrasting rhythms and textures. Although the rendition here is purely instrumental, words are constantly there at a subliminal level, creating yet another semantic and sonic layer - imperceptible, but always present in the background. Artists: Corina Marti - Recorder Marie Nishiyama - Harp Roger Helou - Organ