We will visit the songs and stories as interpreted by musicologist and contemporary musicians playing on period and modern instruments.  Join the growing number of enthusiasts who appreciate the complex themes and musical surprises of the Cantigas de Santa Maria.  Hosted by HPPR’s Debra Bolton.

Las Cantigas de Santa Maria (CSM), composed at the Court of King Alfonso X of Castile-Leon in the second half of the 13th century, are a vast repertory of poetry in medieval Galician-Portuguese. The 420 compositions include 353 narratives of miracles of the Blessed Virgin Mary - one of the largest such collections - as well as a large number of devotional and liturgical poems, almost all set to music, and many illustrated by miniatures divided into smaller panels. The CSM are thus more than a body of literature or a miracle collection, they are a cultural project of great importance for medieval literature, music, and art, and for the history of patronage. Alfonso X’s ‘Cantigas Project’ occupied most of his reign (1252-1284) and was seen by him as an important part of both his political survival and his personal salvation. He devoted considerable resources to it, though the organization of its production, and its relationship to other products of the Alfonsine ‘scriptorium’, has not been established in any detail.

Sources:

• Website for Oxford Cantigas de Santa Maria database  http://csm.mml.ox.ac.uk/?p=intro

Hosted by Debra J. H. Bolton, Ph D.

Debra Bolton began in public radio in 1980 as a classical, jazz, and folk music hosts, at different times and in the role of news reporter.  She produces about two radio shows annually, one with a focus on Geography Awareness Week in music. Bolton has served in positions for higher education as an English teacher and geographer these past 25 years.  Currently, she serves as director of intercultural learning with an academic appointment in Geography and Geospatial Sciences at Kansas State University.

 A National Geographic Society Explorer, Bolton continues her research in multilingual, multiethnic, and multicultural communities situated in rural regions of Southwest Kansas.  "One of the great ways to learn about a people is through their music, their literature, their foods, and their practices." Said Bolton who uses her passion in music to study history such as that of King Alfonso X.  

Bolton credits her love of a wide variety of musical genres is her high school music teacher, Mr. Bauguess, and the presence of great music in her parents' home growing up in the Western Slope of Colorado.  She discovered this musical biography about Medieval King Alfonso X from a friend who introduced her to Esther Lamandier whose music Bolton features on this program.  

More about the Cantigas de Santa Maria, a transcript to this show, and other interesting tidbits can be found on Bolton's Blog: http://peopleandcultures.blog/2020/10/11/cantigas-de-santa-maria-a-musical-exploration-of-medieval-king-alfonso-x-of-spain/