Diabolus in Musica, Dufay M Ave Regina Celorum, Paris (Musée de Cluny ) April 15

[Mandryka]

https://www.musee-moyenage.fr/activites/programmation/reine-du-ciel.html

How the fk do I get a ticket? They don't pick up the phone, there's nowhere online. It's like . . . they're medieval or something.

[ritter]

They're selling tickets for an earlier concert (Hildegard von Bingen, on March 24 & 25: https://web.digitick.com/index-css5-museedecluny-pg1.html). Perhaps they just start selling the tickets a specified number of  weeks in advance of the date. Still, not a very efficient website.   

[Papy Oli]

The FNAC billetterie list the artist in question but not the concert yet either.

https://www.musee-moyenage.fr/activites/programmation/reine-du-ciel.html

How the fk do I get a ticket? They don't pick up the phone, there's nowhere online. It's like . . . they're medieval or something.

Coffee break to wind down before closing, union strike, yellow vests...??   

[Mandryka]

The FNAC billetterie list the artist in question but not the concert yet either.

Coffee break to wind down before closing, union strike, yellow vests...??   

You're not in Paris are you by any chance?

[Papy Oli]

Sorry, I am on your side of the Channel 

[Mandryka]

Done it!

[Mandryka]

I have mixed feelings about this concert. It consisted of the whole of Dufay's ordinarium  and  chanted propers, i don't know if they were by Dufay. The whole topped and tailed by motets. 6 men and 2 ladies singing.

The chant was fabulous, especially when the sopranos lightened the sound up.

I didn't enjoy the polyphonic music. The problem is that the ensemble is often dominated by their bass, Philippe Roche. The timbre he makes is fine, he's not great at diction, but he'll do. It's the balance which spoils things. When he's belting it out, all the other voices don't have a chance to contribute convincingly.

Another problem is that they tend to sing projecting their voices forcefully from their diaphragms. This gives the music the feel of a marketing jingle broadcast in a shopping mall. Not appropriate in my opinion.

And third they're not expressive, they probably think Dufay's polyphony is abstract.

They can do better,  in the final motet, Salve Regina,  they were much better. Go figure.

Antoine Guerber gave a nice little talk before the singing,  saying that people now think he wrote this mass as his own memorial to be sung regularly at Cambrai. He was also good on how powerful Cambrai was at the time.

At the end someone announced that Notre Dame was on fire, the air stank of smoke outside and I passed the twin towers of the cathedral looking like two chimneys belching yellow smoke.