The 13th century is the century of Saint Louis, that of royal, triumphant Gothic art. At a time when France is covered with churches and convents, at a time when the king is strengthening his power and his power at the expense of the great feudal lords, when the Church is trying to control a society that is becoming secularized and urbanized, music experienced two decisive innovations that would profoundly mark our artistic history: the birth of secular music and polyphony.

Following the troubadours (the first musical poets to dare to free themselves from Latin and to invent the first love songs), the trouvères in turn “find” and compose melodies and poems in the language of oïl, ancestor of our modern French. They left us an immense repertoire of astonishing richness and freshness.

Likewise, the ingenuity, the creative audacity of the cantors of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris who, for the first time, invented music for 3 or 4 voices, strike contemporary ears like ours, admirers of so much mastery and innovative beauty.