From the 1150s Paris was an important centre for music. New polyphonic styles came from the Notre Dame School, the name given by modern scholars to the group of musicians working in Paris and associated with the Cathedral of Notre Dame and neighbouring churches.

 

Their works were soon copied, sung and imitated throughout Europe. Their exceptional popularity is explained by the genius of Léonin and Pérotin, but also by the city's extraordinary renown at the beginning of the 13th century, when it was known as the 'mother of the arts' and the 'second Athens'.

The distinctive sound of the ensemble Diabolus in Musica was revealed in 1998, with a first recording entitled
'Vox Sonora' and devoted to conductus of the Notre Dame School. Now 'Paris Expers Paris' presents a completely different facet of this magnificent repertoire. The programme centres on the impressive Christmas response Descendit de Caelis, alternating long polyphonic melismas, probably by Pérotin, and Gregorian melodies enriched with solo prose sections. The other pieces illustrate the possibilities that were being explored by the composers of the Notre Dame School in the thirteenth century: from 1 to 4 parallel voices, Pérotin being the first composer to write in 4 parts.