Ensemble: VocaMe
Album: Kassia - Byzantine Hymns from the First Female Composer of the Occident
Video: Add MS 19352, XI secolo
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About 290 years before the brilliant Hildegard of Bingen was born, Kassia was born in Constantinople, the oldest female composer of whom we have complete musical works today. Of Greek-Byzantine origin, she distinguished herself at an early age for her intelligence and beauty. Many chroniclers, a few years later than her such as Simeon Metaphraste, George the monk (also called George the sinner) and Leo the Mathematician, maintain that she participated in the Parade of Brides in which the Byzantine emperor Theophilus was supposed to choose his bride, delivering to the chosen one, as usual, a golden apple. Fascinated by Kassia's beauty, the young emperor approached her and said: "Through a woman the basest passions are distilled (referring to Eve's original sin)." Kassia responded to him by saying, "But through a woman come the best things (referring to the birth of Jesus)." Out of pride, Theophilus chose another bride, Theodora.
Kassia founded a monastery west of Constantinople of which she became the abbess. A letter from Theodore Studite indicates that she was in close relationship with the nearby monastery of Studion which played a central role in the revival of the Byzantine liturgy between the 9th and 10th centuries. This situation has contributed to the fact that Kassia's works have survived intact to the present day.
She wrote many hymns for the Christian liturgy, the most famous of which is Kassiani's Hymn which is sung on Holy Tuesday. Tradition, which became legend, holds that Emperor Theophilus, in love with Kassia, asked to see her one more time before dying. He therefore went to her monastery. She was writing a hymn when she heard that the emperor wanted to see her. So she left her unfinished work on the table and hid behind a door. Theophilus entered the cell alone but did not find Kassia. He looked for her in the cell but she wasn't there; hidden she looked at him. Teophilius was very sad, he cried and regretted having, in a fit of pride, rejected such a beautiful and intellectual woman. Then he noticed the unfinished hymn lying on the table and read it. When he had read it he sat down at the table and finished the hymn that Kassia had left incomplete. Legend says that as he was about to leave he glimpsed Kassia but did not speak to her.

The VocaMe ensemble is one of the many projects of the German musician Michael Popp, certainly very talented and original in his research, but I have always approached his productions with extreme caution given that in many of his ensembles he does not disdain the use of electronics, even when talking about ancient music. In this album, although he is mentioned in the booklet as a director and player of "various musical instruments" (←just as I wrote!), I don't seem to have noticed any electronic instruments.

Regarding the video: I had been keeping the wonderful images of Theodore Psalter, Constantinople, 1066 - Add MS 19352 for years waiting to find a suitable musical work and I think that the album by the German female ensemble Vocame is definitely perfect both for its time than for the place of origin. The women musicians depicted in the manuscript, in addition to Kassia's works, should make us reflect on how many things there are still to discover about the female repertoire of the past which has always been considered very small, but which certainly requires greater attention and research.

I wish you happy listening!
Mirkò Virginio Volpe
MUSICA MEDIEVALE
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Alto vocals - Natalia Lincoln
Soprano Vocals - Gerlinde Sämann, Sabine Lutzenberger, Sarah M. Newman
Santur - Johann Bengen
Instruments, Direction - Michael Popp
Mezzo-soprano vocals - Elisabeth Pawelke, Sigrid Hausen
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