Ensemble Scholastica - Anonymous: Ars Elaboratio

Montreal's female vocal group Ensemble Scholastica makes its ATMA Classique recording debut with Ars elaboratio, a program of newly composed elaborations on medieval liturgical songs. The original songs were chosen from the medieval plainchant repertoire in homage to the group's favourite saints: Scholastica, champion of education; Cecilia, patron saint of music; Catherine of Alexandria, champion of justice and female wisdom; and Saint John the Baptist, patron to the ensemble's home province of Qu�bec. Through the medieval art of elaboration, in which singers improvise their own embellishments within existing plainchant, Ensemble Scholastica offers a new approach to the quest for authentic performance practise. Plainchant selections on this recording might include elaborated passages of 2, 3 or even 4-voice polyphony.