Nestled behind their powerful walls, the two neighboring towns of Tours and Châteauneuf enjoyed great prosperity at the start of the 13th century. The choirs of the Saint-Gatien cathedral in Tours and the Saint-Martin abbey church in Châteauneuf were rebuilt there practically at the same time, deemed too small to accommodate the crowds of pilgrims on feast days. The prestige of Saint Martin's Basilica is immense. The liturgies in his honor are the object of grandiose solemnities and a manuscript (“Ritual”) written around 1227 by a canon of the basilica, Péan Gatineau, informs us very precisely about the richness of the worship but also about the musical practices. of the Mastership of the Basilica.

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This Ritual was written during a period of very rich musical and poetic creative activity. Liturgical poetry in particular experienced an astonishing flowering of original works and composers were not left out since the famous School of Notre-Dame was still in its most active phase.

The reconstruction of a service dedicated to Saint Martin allows us to approach two fundamental repertoires of this century so privileged for the history of art in general and of music in particular : plainsong in its beautiful square notation, the monodic responses, some of which will be highlighted by an interpretation based on the improvisation technique of “chant sur le livre” and the polyphonies of the School of Notre-Dame.