The word Septentrionalis refers to the north, to the northern sky. Septem triones, the seven ploughing oxen, is the ancient name given to the seven main stars of Ursa major, the most distinct constellation of the northern hemisphere. This recording, Choralis Septentrionalis (the Northern Chorale) introduces ancient church song of the Nordic countries.

Unlike Gregorian liturgical chant, chorale, in this context, refers to the melodies of vernacular congregational song. Having its roots either in the time of the reformation or in the older catholic tradition, this repertory has always formed the musical core of the protestant service. It has also served as a basis for countless independent vocal or instrumental compositions.

The musical fabric on this recording is made out of the Nordic interpretation of the Pan-European musical and literary inheritance. 1524 is a pivotal year from the the point of view of protestant church music. In that year, four different vernacular hymnals were printed in Germany. Many old catholic songs - translated and adapted by Martin Luther - found their ways into these collections. Other chorales were either newly composed or based on borrowed material of popular origin. Already on the 1530's, similar song collections were printed also in Switzerland, France (Le Psautier Huguenot), Bohemia, Hungary, Netherlands, England etc., and also in the Nordic countries.

From the very beginning, the textual sources of Lutheran chorale were numerous: the gospels and other biblical texts, old Latin liturgical songs such as hymns, antiphones and sequences; folk songs, Italian laude etc. In France, the Reformed church preferred the psalm texts of the old testament. Also, unlike in the Lutheran church, the objective was to equip these texts with newly composed melodies of local origin. Melodies were also infrequently borrowed from Catholic or Lutheran sources.

Victimae paschali laudes, an Easter sequence from the 11th century, starts and concludes the current program. Dressed up in various garments of different centuries and musical styles, this composition will be heard, all in all, four times. Victimae paschali is closely connected to the German song Christ ist erstanden. This 12th century religious folk song was born outside of the church walls, among the ordinary people. Similar pieces are also to be found within other language groups and for other ecclesiastical celebrations. In these simple compositions a four-line vernacular strophe is followed by the Greek liturgical acclamation Kyrie eleison. That, in turn, resulted in the term Leise to be applied to describe this repertory.

The aforementioned Easter Leise was eventually translated into Latin (Christus surrexit). It is documented that one Easter night in 14th century Prague this particular Leise was sung simultaneously in three languages: the local inhabitants in Czech, the visitors in German and the clergy in Latin. Through German and Bohemian sources, the tune found its ways into the 16th century Nordic collections. It is to be noted that the connection between Leise-songs an the original sequences is very close. After all, both the textual and the melodic material of each Leise is based on a particular sequence.

The multidimensional Victimae paschali -sequence forms the unifying matrix within which all the other chorale singing of this recording is constructed. Ranging from simple songs of a humble chapel to the grandiose polyphony of a great cathedral, the music takes multiple expressions. The melodies are mostly of German or French origin but appear as Scandinavian variants. The history of one song (track 9) can be traced back to 16th century England and an autonomous Estonian variant (track 10) brings us a surprise greeting from the Baltic. Because of melodic parallels, an ancient Polish tune is also included (track 15).

The current recording includes ca. 20 different chorales. These Lutheran, Reformed, Catholic and secular melodies from different centuries and countries of origin tell us of more than thousand years of mutual musical history. Indeed, the northern perimeter of Europe has had its living musical relationship with the middle and Western part of the continent much before the current aspirations of unification. In a political society, the perception of culture tends to get blurred, and the musical dimension of it even more so. One might want to ask the question, what is the position of this ancient musical heritage in our modern cultural life?

Translation: Markus Tapio