Ensemble Korymbos & Alessandra Fiori - Exit Rosa (2011)

This collection of 13th and 14th century sacred choral pieces includes music taken from a manuscript found in the Bologna Music Museum known as the Q11 code, which is extremely rare in that it was written for female voices. The music is performed by the Ensemble Korymbus and its musical director Alessandra Fiori.

Amongst the many treasures preserved in the Bologna Music Museum is a manuscript known as the Q.11 code which originally dates from the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th century. It is the only collection to be found in Italy (and one of the very few known around Europe) dedicated to monodic and polyphonic sacred works written for the female voices of convent nuns. Alongside the Kyrie and Gloria of the Gregorian mass, the manuscript also includes settings of the Benedicamus Domino and Alleluia in modern style.

The programme on the CD also includes four works taken from the famous Codex Las Huelgas of Burgos, one of the most important sources of the XIII century repertoire, and this helps to place the works of the Bologna manuscript within a wider stylistic context.