Often when we hear the word "crusade" we picture Richard the Lionhearted galloping off to the Holy Land with an army bent on recapturing Jerusalem.  The Albigensian Crusade was a terrible chapter in France's history that was carried out by the Northern French and the Roman Church against the proponents of a Christian sect called Catharism, the medieval home of the troubadours.  This week we explore music from three recordings that took their theme from these disastrous events.

Who were the Cathars?  The word itself comes from a Greek word, kathoros, meaning "pure."  They were given this name by others, as they believed themselves to be the only true Christians who opposed the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church at the time.  "Albigensian" comes from a place, Albi, where this faith was especially widespread.

During the Crusade against the Cathars, the Inquisition and the armies of the north swept through the south of France, utilizing unspeakable acts of torture and execution.  These events were chronicled in a long medieval poem, Chanson de la Croisade Albigeoise, the "song of the Albigensian Crusade."  The Studio der fruhen Musik recorded L'agonie du Languedoc in 1976, weaving recitations from the Chanson with a political satire by troubadour Piere Cardenal.  Studio der fruhen Musik is directed by Thomas Binkley.

Listen to an excerpt of this CD entitled "The Sack of the Beziers:"

Canadian ensemble La Nef is known for their dramatic interpretations of renaissance and medieval music.  The title of their album, Montségur, is taken from one of the most terrifying events of the Crusade: the fall of Cathar forces at Montségur in 1244, were approximately 220 Cathars were marched to the stockade and burned.

The Martin Best Medieval Ensemble released an ablum entitled The Last of the Troubadours that includes music by Guirault Riguier, who is recognized as the last known troubadour.  He wrote of "not only his own failures, but that of the whole troubadour tradition to preserve itself through the Albigensian wars" in his last surviving music.  The Crusade against the Cathars lasted from 1208 and 1255, killing over a million people.  Though it also killed the troubadour tradition, one good thing to come out of such terror was music to remind us the atrocities of war, that we might learn from them.