The Cantigas of Provence and Auvergne are the continuation of the double CD Cantigas of Southern France: Occitania and Rocamadour. They all form part of Pneuma’s project to complete a retrospective recording of the Cantigas de Alfonso X. In the 420 Cantigas de Santa Maria, the number of miracles located in France is second only to the number attributed to Spain. This double CD adds 16 French cantigas to those already recorded and published on PN2-1590 Cantigas of Northern France: Soissons y Arras, PN-520 Cantigas of France, PN-490 Knights in the Crusades, PN-820 Cantigas of Bretana (Celtas), PN-240 Remedios Curativos, PN-1170 Cantigas del Mar Cantábrico and PN-400 Flauta y tamboril. More CDs of French cantigas from Paris and Chartres are yet to be recorded. The Cantigas de Alfonso X are contained in four 13th-century codices in the Library of the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, in the Spanish National Library and in the National Library of Florence, which safeguard this valuable and unique repertoire, an unparalleled musical heritage that on this occasion unites Europe and Spain. In the itinerant court of Alfonso X the Wise, 1253-1284, especially in Toledo and Seville, the Codices of Cantigas were written in Galician-Portuguese poetry, constituting one of the greatest works of literature of the time and 13th-century Europe’s most important collection of melodies. PROVENCE During the Middle Ages, from the 9th century onwards, the ‘Occitan Country’, Occitania, was a hive of Romanesque cultural activity. The Occitan language was the first language to replace Latin in lyrical poetry and Occitan culture was at the height of its splendour between the 11th and 13th centuries, bringing the first troubadours and courtly love. Provence, located to the east of the Rhone River in eastern Occitania and neighbouring on the Piedmont, was a Roman province, as its name suggests, of the Gaul of Narbonne. After the period of the Ostrogoths, Burgundians and Franks, it became known as the Kingdom of Provence of Lower Burgundy in the year 855 with the Carolingians under Lothair I. At this time, the Moors from Al-Andalus began a period of invasions, advancing up the Rhône and plundering Arles, burning the monasteries at Novalaise and Oulx, and attacking the Abbey of St. Gall. In 972, Otto I succeeded in expelling the Moors from Provence, after attempts at diplomacy with Abderramán III of Córdoba to stop the Andalusian Saracen attacks. In 973, William I of Provence managed to finally defeat them, and the Moors from Al-Andalus withdrew, leaving behind them a legacy of innovations in agriculture and fishing. The House of Barcelona entered Provence in 1127 through Ramón Berenguer III of Provence, and in 1166 Alfonso II of Aragon brought the House of Aragon. In 1267, the region was under the rule of the House of Anjou through the kingdom of Naples, and later in 1481 it became part of the Kingdom of France. Alfonso X the Wise, a claimant to the Holy Roman Empire, supported from Pisa and Marseille from 1256 to 1275, was in contact with Provence and the different popes that had great powers in the Avignon area. His claim became known as the ‘Fecho del Imperio’ and ended with the meeting in Beaucaire between Alfonso and Gregory X. Many Provençal troubadours worked in the court of Alfonso X: Folquet de Lunel 1244- 1300, Guiraut Riquier 1220-1292, who was at his court for ten years, Paulet de Marseille 1202-1262/66 in Castile, and many others. In the opinion of Higinio Anglés, although these troubadours may have contributed to the cantigas, there is not much Provençal influence on the melodies. Some of the tonadas, suppressing the refrain, could have belonged to the Provençal Troubadouresque repertoire, as well as to the Latin hymns of the monasteries. The cantigas of Provence capture the atmosphere of the knights of the area, tales of monasteries and the Marian devotion of the convents, as well as family stories of mothers, children, travel and weddings. Complete versions of Cantigas 236 and 258, were previously recorded on the Cantigas de Francia and on Flauta y Tamboril respectively and are included here in a simplified version to complete the songbook of this region of Provence. AUVERGNE-RHONE This region of France between the mountains of the Massif Central and the Alps, traversed by the Rhône River, was conquered by the Carolingians at the end of the 7th century and became part of the kingdom of Aquitaine. Since the 10th century, the Auvergne has been remembered for the rivalry between the Counts of Toulouse, the Episcopal County of Clermont and the Counts of Poitiers. The cantigas of Auvergne-Rhône gather together beautiful miracles such as the one about the chasuble of Bishop Saint Bono of Clermont, the wise necromancer monk of Auvergne, the singing cleric of Cluny Abbey and the woman of Lyon who was brought to justice. Three of these Cantigas take place in Notre Dame de Le Puy en Velay influenced by Hispanic-Muslim culture, dealing with different emotional issues where Holy Mary helps women and families. The Benedictine Cluny Abbey was founded in the woods of Burgundy in 909 by William I of Aquitaine, Count of Auvergne. The third expansion of Cluny, begun in 1080 by the abbot of the Cluniac reform, Saint Hugo de Semur, was financed by Ferdinand I of Leon and Castile and his son Alfonso VI, who gave 1000 and 2000 Islamic gold coins respectively, a tribute from the Spanish Taifa kingdoms. This is the time of Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085), a monk from the monastery of Cluny in 1046, and of his Gregorian Reform with the imposition of the Roman rite and the abolition of the Hispanic-Mozarabic rite at the Council of Burgos in 1080.