Ar Baradoz: Sacred Songs of Lower Brittany

The Breton music most familiar to us tends to be forthright: bagpipe bands, the talabard (bombard) or choirs singing lustily. Ar Baradoz is very different: quiet, measured and contemplative. Lower Brittany is the region in the west where the Breton language is still spoken and traditions survive. Since the 70s the singer Kemener has been gathering songs and stories from ‘the elderly custodians of a culture under the threat of amnesia and disappearance.’ Among these are sacred songs such as ‘Gourch'hemmenoù Doue’, a paraphrase from a verse of the Biblical commandments and the hymn of praise ‘Kantig ar Baradoz’.
Kemener is accompanied by Florence Rousseau on harmonium and the cellist Aldo Ripoche. The cello underlines Kemener's light voice while Rousseau provides harmony and rhythm. The music, simple and delicate, develops a moving devotional intensity. The sacred songs are interspersed with instrumental pieces written by Paul Ladmirault and Joseph-Guy Ropartz, classical composers inspired by Breton traditional music. There are also poems, in French, by the Breton poet and monk Gilles Baudry. That such lovely songs should not be forgotten, and that the Breton language should not disappear – these are surely worthy of prayer.