1 CSM 34 EL ICONO PERDIDO (Instrumental) - Viola, santur, fídula, tromba marina, vihuela de pénola y chalumeau
2 CSM 155 CABALLERO DE ALEJANDRÍA. Ali u a pedença - Canto, coro, salterio, laúd, tumbur, kaval, flauta
3 CSM 131 EL EMPERADOR Y EL PATRIARCA (Instrumental) - Viola, fídula, tromba marina, vihuela de pénola, kaval, cálamo, pandero y campanil
4 CSM 182 EL SALTEADOR DE DAMIETA. Deus, que mui ben barata - Canto, coro, salterio, vihuela, flautas, campanil
5 CSM 265 SAN JUAN DAMASCENO (Instrumental) - Lira, fídula, tromba marina, cálamo y pandero
6 CSM 65 ERMITANO DE ALEJANDRÍA. A creer devemos - Canto y coro, laúd, buzuki, guimbri, cornamusa, fidula, darbugas, pandero y pandereta
7 CSM 145 SAN JUAN ELEIMOSYNARIUS (Instrumental) - Saz, viola, fídula, vihuela de pénola, chalumeau, flauta, darbuga y pandereta

The Cantigas of ALEXANDRIA are part of Pneuma's project to record a retrospective of the entire collection of the Cantigas de Alfonso X. More specifically, this recording is part of the collection of miracles that take place in the Eastern Mediterranean, and complements CD PN 880 Cantigas of Byzantium, PN- 1490 Cantigas of Rome and the CDs we are currently working on: Cantigas of Jerusalem and Cantigas from Overseas. The connection between Alexandria and Rome on the one hand, and the Byzantine Empire, the wise hermits and the Sufis of the Orient on the other, make these miracles real travel novels packed with mystic teaching. Eremitism is a way of life that originated in the East, particularly in Egypt and Syria, in about the third century AD, having some pre-Christian precedents such as the Jewish Therapeutae, healers of the soul, who were present in Alexandria and who advocated solitude and isolation to achieve spiritual perfection. Hermits shied away from the usual social ties to dwell in the deserts of the Thebaid and the Nile delta. Later there was a similar phenomenon in western monastic life. In the Middle Ages, the hermit lifestyle was the ascetic renunciation of a homeland, the peregrinatio pro Christo, which implied a leap from opulence to extreme poverty, and a retreat from the city. Alfonso X had important European ancestors. He was the great grandson of the emperor Frederick Barbarossa and Irene of Byzantium, sister of the emperor Alexios IV. Alexandria is within the orbit of Constantinople, the seat of the Byzantine Empire and always a key location in the epic story of the Crusades. The codices of the Cantigas were compiled in the court of Alfonso X el Sabio, 1253-1284, in Galician-Portuguese verse and were one of the greatest achievements in the literature of the time and the most important collection of 13th century European melodies. Greek, Coptic, Christian and Muslim Alexandria was a beacon of culture and philosophy: Clement d.216, Origen d.254, Arius d.336, Athanasius d.373, Hypatia d.415, and the theological disputes with Constantinople. After the great library had been destroyed, victim of the Roman wars, of natural disasters and of Coptic fanaticism, the Arabs took the city in 646, bringing an end to 975 years as part of the Greco- Latin world. Between 811 and 827, the city was in the hands of the pirates of Andalusia who had once been Almogavar soldiers. After a long decline, Alexandria re-emerged as a great metropolis in the era of the Crusades and experienced a flourishing period thanks to trade with the Aragonese, Genoese and Venetians. In 1365 the city was brutally sacked after being taken by the crusaders led by Peter of Cyprus. The Toledo of Alfonso X is associated with Alexandria as a "beacon of humanity", receiving and spreading the classical legacy that came to the Christian West through the Toledo School of translators during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

The cantigas in Pneuma's comprehensive anthology are sung with the complete text, which is a challenge, because some of them are very long with a simple and repetitive melody. For this reason, as we do not know how they were performed in the court of the wise king, we use resources that allow us to give each song its unique flavour. The singing is backed up by the chorus, sometimes enhancing it with13th century style polyphony: canon where the words are shifted and the melody is mirrored on the main note of the scale or mode; recited narrative or dialogue, very common in poems; and the tones and textures of the instruments drawn so profusely in the miniatures that appear in the codices of the cantigas.