Heaven and Hell And The Earth Between

An atmospheric and almost completely acapella disk from Gothic Voices ( director Christopher Page plays medieval harp on one track ), The Marriage of Heaven and Hell presents motets and songs from 13th century France. I was expecting a mix of the sacred and the profane, plainchant and troubadour airs. But I learned from the booklet notes that it was a much more intertwined situation and that motets, a term I had associated purely with church music, could also encompass more wordly subject matter. The songs often seem to take the form of a round, passed among the voices of the group who appear on the disk in various groupings of five comprising alto, three tenors and baritone. The notes also explain the differences between the motet world and that of the troubadours from further south in France but the lyrics tend to occupy that same region of courtly love, with the object of desire worshipped from afar. The eroticism sometimes spills over into the Marian settings too. The singing throughout is beautifully rich and the polyphony and dissonances in the music constantly stimulating.