The Llibre Vermell de Montserrat (, "Red Book of Montserrat") is a manuscript collection of devotional texts containing, amongst others, some late medieval songs. The 14th-century manuscript was compiled in and is still located at the monastery of Montserrat outside Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain.

Manuscript

The manuscript was prepared in approximately 1399. It originally contained 172 double pages, of which 32 have been lost. Six folios contain music. The title "The Red Book of Montserrat" describes the red binding in which the collection was placed in the 19th century. No composer is identified for any of the songs it contains. The monastery holds the shrine of the Virgin of Montserrat, which was a major site of pilgrimage during the time it was compiled.

Music

The purpose of the compilation is made clear by its anonymous compiler himself: The songs, therefore, were written for the pilgrims to have something appropriately "chaste and pious" to sing and dance to (circle dances). The songs are in Catalan, Occitan and Latin. While the collection was written near the end of the 14th century, much of the music in the collection appears from its style to originate earlier; the motet Imperayritz de la ciutat joyosa contains two different texts that can be sung simultaneously, a style that would have been old-fashioned when the manuscript was compiled. The songs have many of the characteristics of folk songs as well as hymns. Some are monophonic, while others are set in two to four parts of usually non-imitative polyphony. The monodic songs can be sung as two- or threefold canons. The relative simplicity, the dance rhythm, and the strong melodies of the songs have given the music collected in the Red Book a lasting appeal, and these songs are some of the most frequently recorded pieces of early music.

Surviving songs

The ten songs in the collection that survive are: Many performers have performed these songs; some of the more noteworthy performances have been by Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XX, Micrologus, Studio der Frühen Musik, and Ensemble Unicorn.

Modern recordings

Media