Res est admirabilis — École grégorienne

Описание: One of my favorite pieces from the Codex of Alienor of Brittany (13th century)—also known as the Fontevraud Gradual, named after the Fontevraud Abbey where Alienor served as abbess. The manuscript is primarily composed of Gregorian chant, organized according to their unique local order, but it also includes three remarkable examples of early polyphony:

This Marian sequence (sequences are rhythmical poems sung after the Alleluia and before the Gospel)

A Christological sequence, Verbum bonum, also found in manuscripts of the Notre-Dame school and beautifully recorded by Marius Peterson and Graindelavoix on their Machaut album

A Credo, which—if I’m not mistaken—also appears in the 12th-century Codex Calixtinus

The book is amazing, richly illuminated, and available online. It’s also famous for its épitres farcies—vernacular insertions into Latin epistles designed to make the texts more accessible to lay audiences. Though eventually considered inappropriate for sacred use, these interpolations reflect a serious and widespread effort to bridge the linguistic gap between the Latin-literate clergy and the congregation.

This piece I discovered in the Ensemble Organum album of 1993—a landmark album still circulating today on YouTube. It is written for two equal voices, celebrating Mary’s virginity—an appropriate theme for performance in a convent, and indeed the pairing of stanzas suggest performance by two choirs. It was sung for the Annunciation (March 25), and probably for the Nativity. We can also observe that the rules of composition, as later codified, were still quite fluid.

So glad to be singing once again with Julie Briot-Mandeville.

This piece was originally published on July 4, 2025, on our Instagram account : @ecole_gregorienne

We sing weekly vespers in Paris, and in Lyon, France.